'Penn p.m.' premieres at U.

If the last week is any indication, new programs designed to get people in Penn's residences to socialize together may be headed for success. The Department of College Houses and Academic Services has instituted a program called "Penn p.m.," designed to give students living in each of the 12 college houses more options for late night, non-alcoholic activities. College house sports competitions and coffee houses held over the last week were well-attended, according to Sue Smith, a spokesperson for the college houses. Future events already in the works include trips to see the popular rock musical Rent, more coffee houses in the residences, a meringue party in Gregory House, a "dating game" blowout in Hamilton House and several late-night weekend movie viewings. Although many residences held social events in previous years, officials hope the Penn p.m. events will be bigger and better attended, with more of a "concerted effort around the houses to enhance late-night programs," according to Smith. The program -- planned to continue throughout the entire school year -- will be advertised via a Web site link to the University's homepage. For the first part of the year, Penn p.m. will be posting a weekly schedule, Smith explained. After the first week of October, the program will switch to a monthly schedule. Once the resident advisers, graduate advisers and faculty-in-residence settle in fully, Smith said, they will be planning large activities more regularly. In the first year of the new college house system, houses are at more than 99 percent capacity, up from about 95 percent last year, according to Chris Dennis, the director of College House and Academic Services. The figure has led several officials to express optimism about the likelihood of the Penn p.m. program succeeding. According to Smith, a coffee house night in the Quad's Spruce Street House several nights ago had a very high turnout, leading house staff to plan a similar event in the future. "It's only going to get better," Smith predicted, adding that she was working with the office of the Vice Provost of University Life to develop an advertising campaign for the events. Besides drawing on the increased number of students living on campus, College House officials said the increased amount of college house staff should help create more effective programming. The staffers include over 190 RAs and GAs, the most ever, according to Pam Robinson, the associate director of College Houses, who helped train residential staff. Robinson added that a major theme of this year's training was to encourage students to socialize without the use of alcohol. Kathy Liu, a GA in Hill College House, said the Penn p.m. events could be welcome alternatives to typical parties. "I think [students] would [go] if there was something different to do besides go to fraternity parties," she said. A factor that may help to provide more interesting events is that several house deans are "phenomenally connected" to the Philadelphia performing arts community, Smith said. For example, Gregory House Dean David Schengold, a Russian Literature scholar who has published in Theatre Journal, will likely organize cultural events like opera performances. Vishnu Srivasan, an RA in Harnwell House, formerly High Rise East, said he expects the social programming to be successful since the system was modeled after Hill House, where he lived last year. "A lot of the [Hill] suites did activities on Friday and Saturday nights and there was a pretty good response," the Wharton junior said. College sophomore Gina LaPlaca, a resident of Spruce Street House, had a similar take on the outlook for the late-night programming. "It's a really good idea because for the most part, people have trouble finding things to do late at night," LaPlaca said. "There are enough opportunities to drink," she added. "If that's all people are here for, they're missing out." Another Spruce Street House resident, Jeff Braunstein, said he was looking forward to attending more events, such as the coffee house, at which he sang karaoke. "I like to go to events so I can meet more people," the Engineering freshman said. Braunstein added, however, that he suspects people might not attend events beginning late at night because they would conflict with parties.