COLUMN: Don't plaster over a tradition

From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '00 From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '00Just last week, the University released new plans for renovating the Quadrangle. The new plans are part of a larger effort to make the college houses more appealing to all students at Penn, freshmen and upperclassmen alike. But while all of these efforts and plans are admirable and certainly well meaning, the plans for the Quad constitute a misstep on the part of the college house system. Certain college houses within the University, including those in the Quadrangle, should remain predominantly inhabited by freshmen. No one would argue that one of the first things incoming freshmen should do is bond as a class. They're gonna spend four years together -- they might as well get to know each other. And what better way to get to know each other than live together? Serving as a residential advisor to a mostly freshman hall in the Quad -- the first time I lived in the Quad in my Penn career -- I can testify from first-hand experience to the merits of keeping the Quad primarily for freshmen. Just last week, for example, I was awakened on our "snow day" to the sound of hundreds of kids out in the middle of Upper Quad pelting each other with snowballs, playing football and generally acting more like 10-year-olds than college freshmen. The sophomores on my hall had better things to do than play in the snow with the freshmen -- they used the day to study and go visit friends west of 38th Street. And while I minded losing some sleep, I couldn't help but look out upon the Class of 2003 and think that this was exactly what the college house system is supposed to do -- build community and offer students not only a chance to experience college, but experience each other. Dormitories reserved primarily for freshmen are -- without question -- an advantage the University should try its best to keep. So who's behind these new plans for the Quadrangle? Who would be so bold as to change a good thing? Who would try and fix something that ain't broke? Some deranged Trammell Crow lackey? Some out-of-touch administrator? Hardly. Meet David Brownlee, professor of Art History and the hardest-working man in the University. Dr. Brownlee, in addition to his duties as a professor, runs the University's college house system. "I do believe that what we're doing is basically a good thing," Dr. Brownlee told me over the weekend. Indeed, Dr. Brownlee has spent countless (and thankless) hours and dollars working with architects, faculty and students trying to reconstruct the college house dormitories to make them more appealing to all classes of undergraduates and graduate students. "I'm of the opinion that we should not segregate freshmen," Dr. Brownlee says, "but I'm also of the opinion that there is also no perfect system." And so Dr. Brownlee and the college house system are willing to try a variety of things to strengthen dorm life at Penn. "The key to this whole thing is flexibility." In fact, Dr. Brownlee makes a pretty convincing argument on behalf of opening the Quad to more upperclassmen, pointing out that it wasn't until very recently in the University's history that the Quad became reserved primarily for freshmen. But the evolution that made the Quadrangle a dorm for freshmen was one that worked for the better. Instead of trying to reverse the process that made the Quad a "freshman dormitory," the University should embrace it. Thankfully for us all, Dr. Brownlee is of the belief that one's contribution to the University goes beyond the classroom and the research lab. In fact, without Brownlee's efforts, there would probably be no college house system at all. But even Dr. Brownlee is quick to admit that the Quadrangle, built in 1895, offers unique challenges to any architect seeking to renovate it. And so perhaps the Quad is indeed the wrong building to be messing with. "It's really a demanding project," Dr. Brownlee admits, "trying to get an old building to do new tricks."