STAFF EDITORIAL: Building up the life sciences

Penn's plans for a $90 million facility for the Bio and Psych departments should progress rapidly toward construction. Penn's Biology and Psychology departments, in particular, have suffered for years with antiquated and often obsolete laboratory and classroom space. But the University's plan to build a new $90 million life sciences building near Hamilton Walk is a necessary and reassuring first sign that Penn will not let itself fall too far behind the competition. The long-overdue proposal meets with our approval. We hope, though, that School of Arts and Sciences administrators make this chief among their facilities fundraising priorities and move the plan quickly from thoughts and words to bricks and mortar. The greatest appeal of the new life sciences building is the number of schools and departments that would benefit from its construction. In addition to SAS, the Medical and Veterinary schools will capitalize on the new lab space. Meanwhile, the Graduate School of Education and the School of Social Work -- two schools beset by their own facilities shortcomings -- will be able to colonize the Psychology Department's current home in the heart of campus. The programs that would be housed in this new building stand at the cutting edge of modern science. It is necessary that Penn address the sorry state of its current facilities and create work space commensurate with the challenges that lie ahead. We are glad that administrators are talking about this project, and hope to see it move rapidly toward actual construction.