LETTERS: Students will not be evicted

To the Editor: Students who wish to retain their current room types will be able to do just that. For those few students who are on the floors designated for new or relocated programs and who would like to retain, we invite them to consider joining the new programs. All are, of course, welcome. The conversions begin to implement the College House plan, published in the October 14 Almanac and described in a great many campus briefing sessions and DP articles throughout the fall. Every upper-class and rising upper-class student received in the mail in mid December a brochure "21st Century College Houses," describing all of the elements of the new system, including detailed descriptions of each the 12 college houses and the variety and locations of Residential Programs they host. Along with our colleagues from the Assignments Office in Housing Services, we have worked hard to minimize the effect of the changes by strictly limiting the number of converted spaces, and system-wide only 3 percent of residential spaces will be affected by the conversions. In the case of those few whose rooms are being converted or undergoing construction, every effort will be made to allow people to retain similar room types on other floors, and we expect that most everyone can be satisfactorily accommodated. Housing Services has written to affected students and will be working with people individually to give them priority in the retention and room selection process. We have made every effort to make this transition a smooth one for those few students affected, and we will certainly continue to do so. Finally, and significantly, students returning to the high rises in September 1998 will find more direct support for their academic work and important new spaces for their new college house communities. Christopher Dennis Director of Academic Programs and Residence Life Dietz's Puff Piece To the Editor: Although I'm sure legions of vilified Penn women took great solace in the rhetoric of Ben Dietz's recent guest column, I question why an entire quarter page of copy was spent on a piece that should have been articulated as a classified ad instead. To defeat the alleged stereotypes that Dietz discusses is one thing, to advance the cause of his own personal libido is a different story altogether -- one certainly not worthy of an 800-word column in the DP. Might I suggest that in the future the editorial page be left as a forum for intelligent and witty writing, and not wasted on an outbound senior intent on using the DP as a tool to get laid a couple more times during his remaining months at Penn? Tom Kretchmar College '00 Lapsed security? To the Editor: I am deeply concerned with security issues on campus. Living on 40th Street, I have noticed that since coming back from fall break there have been no security patrols at all on or around 40th and the Superblock area. Last semester there were three at each corner of Walnut, Locust and Spruce streets, both day and night, and now there are none. Do University officials like playing with our lives, or is it perhaps just a cutback to save money? Do they really want another incident like the one on 40th Street last year, or do they just not care about the safety of their student body? Administrators do not seem willing to address this issue. As we all know, even though crime has fallen to some extent, it has not stopped, and it will worsen as soon as people begin to realize the lack of security on and around campus. Because the DP is the only source that the University takes seriously, I urge you to follow up on the matter and make it known. I fear for my safety and the safety of those around me. Someone has to because the University is not. Peter Margetis Wharton '01 Complimenting art To the Editor: I think that Dipen Shah's illustrations are wonderful, but I was especially taken by the illustration for Karen Pasternack's column "In support of moderation," DP, 1/15/98). It catches the mood of the column at one glance, and the detail is excellent. Thank you, Dipen, for sharing your artistic gifts. Jeanne Napier