STAFF EDITORIAL: The future of Locust Walk

We like Penn's plans to give space ont he Walk to student groups. But some buildings should be used for housing. University President Judith Rodin last week approved a committee's recommendations regarding academic, cultural and social programming on the Walk. The big winners under the plan are graduate students, minority organizations, performing arts troupes and student religious groups -- all of which came away with choice space in the Christian Association building or the Veranda. These members of the University community have suffered for years from either a lack of adequate space or locations on the periphery of campus -- or more often than not, both. A broad spectrum of the student body will benefit from placing these deserving organizations in a central location. The Locust Walk Advisory Committee should be praised for its effort to balance a number of competing interest groups. But our hope is that the panel's work represents only a transition in the life of the Walk, not a permanent arrangement. In particular, the committee overlooked residential life, which should be a more significant part of the mixture of buildings on the Walk. Unlike administrative offices or academic centers, student housing makes the Walk a 24-hour focus of campus life. Currently, a handful of fraternities call the Walk home. We welcome the suggestion that a sorority move into the current VPUL offices, though it bears noting that it could be years before any move is actually made. Adding non-Greek residences, furthermore, would send a bold message of inclusiveness to the campus community. For example the Community Service Living-Learning Program flourished for years in the Castle but has languished in the high rises. Its return to a place of prominence should be a top residential priority. The committee's efforts will make Locust Walk a more diverse and vibrant place to work, play and pray. But as space opens up elsewhere on campus, we hope that administrators make room for a greater residential presence on Locust Walk.