Delays foil fall opening of new graduate student center

Graduate students will have to wait a little longer for an on-campus hangout. The new Graduate Student Activities Center, which graduate student organizations had hoped would open this September at 3616 Locust Walk, the former Phi Sigma Kappa house, is now not expected to be completed until the spring or fall of 2001 because of unforeseen structural problems. The proposal for the center was submitted to University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi late last December and approved in April. But the Graduate And Professional Student Assembly and the Graduate Student Associations Council have been considering the idea of a social center for graduate students for almost a decade. According to GAPSA, Penn is the only Ivy League school without a space devoted solely to graduate students. Last spring, Rodin approved the recommendation by the Locust Walk Advisory Committee to give two floors of a former fraternity house at 3615 Locust, currently the Veranda, to the grad students. The new building will offer meeting space for 20 to 30 graduate academic groups and also serve as a center for graduate student social life. Although GAPSA and GSAC originally planned for the center to be ready this fall, they said the delay will not have any drastic impact on their plans for the upcoming academic year. GAPSA Chairman Kyle Farley explained that he felt it was best that they hold off until the building is completely ready, rather than rushing a partial opening. "Focusing on the long term rather than the short term, it's better to wait and do it right," Farley said. Added Eric Eisenstein, president of GSAC: "The upshot is that with the opening of Perelman Quad and Houston Hall, because those are student, both undergraduate and graduate, spaces, we've already scheduled social events and weekly meetings.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.