COLUMN: Something for everyone

From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '00 From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '00Virginia Woolf first put into words the desire we all feel for "a room of one's own." As she once claimed, "it is necessary to have five hundred [pounds] a year and a room with a lock on the door if you are to write fiction or poetry."From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '00Virginia Woolf first put into words the desire we all feel for "a room of one's own." As she once claimed, "it is necessary to have five hundred [pounds] a year and a room with a lock on the door if you are to write fiction or poetry." Borrowing from Woolf, campus groups have been lobbying the administration for years for a space of their own on the main artery through campus -- Locust Walk. La Casa Latina has a space. The Pan-Asian American Community House has a space. Even the graduate students have a room of their own, sitting atop the second floor of the Veranda. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column asking the provost's committee to consider turning the former Christian Association building into a performing arts hub. Not only will they do that on the first floor, but the rest of the building is scheduled to hold a multiplicity of other campus groups. And my then-prediction that the University would not use any of the new space for a much-needed religious life center proved to be false. The first floor of the Veranda has rightfully been tapped to service Penn's faith-based groups in the near future, a move that is desperately needed as Hillel moves off campus within the year. Of course, the plans submitted by the provost and endorsed by the president aren't perfect. The thing that bothers me most about the treasured Locust Walk allocations is that -- right or wrong -- they mirror the composition of the committee charged with selecting them. For example, Kendra Nicholson and Eric Eisenstein -- chairs of GAPSA and GSAC respectively -- succeeded in winning a graduate student center for their constituents. And Electrical Engineering Professor Jorge Santiago-Aviles, co-founder of La Casa Latina, won a spot for his pet project as well. Even Provost Barchi, who has long wanted an undergraduate research hub, got his wish. The newly created Center for Academic Research and Fellowships will be on the second floor of the old CA building. Furthermore, the influence of Jerome Byam, chairman of the United Minorities Council and one of only two undergraduates on the 10-person committee, was certainly felt. An overwhelming number of the allocations went to minority and ethnic interest groups on campus. The connections between the allotments and the persons responsible for them are cause for questioning. I can't help but think that had I been on the provost's committee, there might be a section in the old CA building reserved solely for English majors from Southeastern Tennessee. I would enjoy the space, but I'm not sure my own desires are congruous with the University's best interests. Also, now would have been a perfect time for the University administration to shore up its recently formed good faith with the Greek community by placing a sorority house on Locust Walk. The old FIJI house at 3619 Locust is -- first and foremost, few would argue -- a residence. It will be ill-suited for the SAS centers it is slated to house. That the committee didn't place a sorority house on the Walk as was widely rumored, though, should not come as too much of a surprise. The Locust Walk Advisory Committee had few undergraduates and fewer Greeks, with no official representation from the IFC or Panhel. Also, no sorority sisters -- UA Chairman Michael Silver was the lone Greek on the committee. The nebulous plans President Rodin alludes to for a sorority to someday inhabit the current VPUL headquarters are sketchy at best. And while the space allotted in the Veranda offers Penn religious communities a space of their own, it is a small space indeed. The recent Jesus Week activities are a testament to the activity within and size of Penn's evangelical Christian community. Unlike the Catholic and Jewish communities at Penn, most Christian fellowships have no central meeting space and are often forced into the bowels of DRL to gather and worship. The Christian Association, for those who are wondering, has always readily admitted it lacks the resources to minister to this group of students. (The theological differences between Penn's large evangelical community and the liberal CA are another snag in their relationship.) Also -- and perhaps this is another column for another time -- a University chaplain with the stature of William Gipson deserves a chapel of his own. Currently he shares office space with the Women's Center, and a chaplain without a chapel is -- as I said in my earlier column -- like "a judge without a courtroom." He deserves better. But as Silver so, um, eloquently put it, "It's a crazy-good mix of allocations." That it is. Crazy-good. The provost's committee should be -- for the most part -- proud of the work they have done.