EDITORIAL: Losing a dorm, not a community

Stouffer's demolition is sad for the dorm's residents but does not mean the end of close college houses. That's the question Stouffer College House residents and University officials must be asking themselves as they consider the plans for Penn's massive $300 million dorm and dining renovations, which include tearing down Stouffer. While it's natural for Stouffer residents to point with pride to their close-knit dorm, a successful community comes about because of the students who live there, not bricks and concrete. Demolishing Stouffer may be painful for the dorm's current residents, but it's an important aspect of Penn's master plan -- and one that should be carried out. At the same time, the University should learn from this successful college house and promise that some of the dorms to be built on Superblock will be small, housing fewer than 200 students each. As dorms like Stouffer demonstrate, the college house system may work best when all the students in one house live near each other and the community is small enough so its members get to know one another. The rest of the campus community also has reason to fear the demolition of Stouffer, as many popular retail spots like Wawa, Beijing and Salad Works will go down with the dorm. We hope, however, that planners will make a point of leaving room in the new, semi-transparent structure to be built on the site for the return of these establishments.