EDITORIAL: Give the college houses time

It will take longer than a semester to see if the college house system fosters community living. Students have said repeatedly and at every opportunity that their primary residential concern is convenience. People live on campus because it's easy. But the college house system promises more. It promises to foster a sense of community, to increase interaction between freshmen and upperclassmen. It is too early to tell whether this system will achieve those goals. The layout of the high rises remains the most substantial obstacle to true community living. In time, that will be solved --assuming the residential renovations master plan proceeds apace. We hope and believe that other obstacles will fall with time, as well. While a Daily Pennsylvanian survey shows little interaction between classes, we must wait until next year to see how classes that entered under the house system interact. At present, only the freshman class has had the benefit of a consistent residential experience. We encourage the Office of College Houses and Academic Services to release its customer satisfaction data so that students remain informed about the system's progress. And we ask students who remain skeptical to give the system time to mature. In this era of high technology, we are all aware that new programs always come with bugs. By listening to student input, we hope officials will patch those bugs.