'First-yr. dorms' chosen by many upperclassmen

Large numbers of freshmen decided to remain in their dorms. When the college house plan designed to turn all Penn dormitories into multi-year houses was announced last October, skeptics feared that current freshman dormitories would fail to attract upperclassmen. But preliminary retention and applications numbers indicate that many of the current freshmen will retain their rooms in what are now freshman dormitories -- the Quadrangle, King's Court/English House and Hill House -- as sophomores. At the same time, the Assignments Office has reported a slight decrease in the number of upperclassmen retaining rooms in the high rises. The deadline for room retention requests in most residences was last Friday. Preliminary counts indicate that retention is down by "30 to 40" applications in the high rises, according to Ellie Rupsis, associate director of occupancy administration. Information on how many residents chose not to retain their high rise rooms in order to switch to other rooms within the high rises will not be available until next month. Unlike the high rises, where students can apply for rooms beginning next Monday, the former freshman houses have already accepted both retentions and new applications. The number of rising sophomores applying to live in freshman houses has exceeded the initial expectations of both faculty members and administrators. In October, when the college house plan was announced, administrators said they expected the traditional residential patterns of freshman and upperclassman houses to persist for the first few years of the new program. But Residential Faculty Council Chairperson Al Filreis, who helped develop the program, said he expected many students to see the value of multi-year housing. "I'm not really surprised, but I am very pleased that a number of students are taking seriously the idea that these are real communities. And communities consist of diverse groups of people," said Filreis, an English professor. The numbers for the Quad may be slightly inflated, however. Students could apply to all four Quad houses, leading residential staff members to assume some applications overlap. Diana Koros, assistant dean of Community House in the Quad, said 31 people applied to live in the house -- which will house 486 students next year -- as upperclassmen, adding that "it's more than we had last year." The 422-resident Ware College House in the Quad -- which next year will also include the Speakman, Bodine and Class of 1928 buildings -- will be at least one-fourth upperclassmen, according to Ware Administrative Fellow Peter Trinh. Trinh, a Bioengineering graduate student, said about 100 students are retaining their rooms, an increase from last year. Ware, which is already a college house, has traditionally housed more upperclassmen than most Quad dorms. But the three buildings which will be incorporated into Ware had previously housed soley freshmen. Fifty-four people applied for the room lottery for the 308 available spaces in Spruce Street House in the Quad, making at least one-sixth of the house upperclassmen, said Spruce Street Assistant Dean Debbi Yarber. Hill House, which will house 541 students, has had a "huge increase" in its applicant pool, with 106 rising sophomores applying for rooms, as compared to last year's 87. Thirty students are on a waiting list. Preliminary numbers in King's Court/English House, which will house 221 students in King's Court and 179 in English House, show an increase in the application rate, KC/EH Assistant Dean Krimo Bokreta said. Bokreta said he could not give precise numbers because the data for the houses' four residential programs -- the Science and Technology Wing, International Studies and Business, Biosphere and Prospective in the Humanities -- have not been tabulated. Staff members in Goldberg College House in the Quad did not return repeated telephone calls this week.