When Penn first implemented the college house system in 1998, administrators had visions of dorms where students would not only live together, but would socialize, learn and eat together.
The dining halls would be a place for hallmates to get to know each other, for faculty masters to join residents to catch up on the latest news and for students to build small communities among Penn's thousands of undergraduates.
The events of the past year, however, have created significant roadblocks to achieving this goal, a centerpiece to the design of the college house system.
Last spring, students were outraged when Penn Dining Services eliminated the smallest meal plan open to upperclassmen and made a meal plan mandatory for freshmen. This summer, the University was forced to close Stouffer Dining Hall in reaction to financial difficulties and decreasing student demand.
And last month, the University released figures indicating that 1,500 fewer students were signed-up for a meal plan this fall than were during the same time period last year -- a tangible result of student dissatisfaction with the structure of dining at Penn.
As enrollment declines and dining halls close, Penn's ability to capitalize on Dining Services as a cornerstone of the college house system drops. With Stouffer shut down, hundreds of Quadrangle residents -- many of whom once relied on the nearby Spruce Street facility for their meals -- are scattered to the three other dining halls found across campus, and college house leadership admits this is a problem.
"Preferably [there would be] dining rooms close to each house," said David Brownlee, director of college houses and academic services. "Closing Stouffer is a problem."
That the University has to disperse students to various dining halls is no surprise, given that only two of Penn's 12 college houses -- Hill and Kings Court/English College Houses -- have dining halls within their buildings. This is drastically different than schools like Yale University, for one, where dining halls are found in all dormitories.
But according to Brownlee, building other dining halls to better mesh living and eating simply isn't an option given the decreased number of students on meal plans, even if this is the most desirable scheme.
"The truth is that there weren't enough people on meal plans to justify having another dining hall open," he said. "I think everyone agrees that the best dining arrangement is having the dining hall in the residential hall."
The problem, of course, is funding, which has also contributed to the virtual standstill of plans to renovate the high rises and create new dorms in Hamilton Village. As the Health System bled money for years in the 90s, University officials found that their original plans to renovate dorms and dining facilities at Penn almost had to be scrapped. Stouffer was scheduled for demolition, but with the recent financial setbacks, the future of the facility is on hold.
Without cafeterias in college houses, administrators are forced to work with existing facilities -- both residential and dining.
Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik, who oversees all long-term campus construction and infrastructure, said that it is important for the University to distinguish between what works in theory and what's possible in practice when it comes to on-campus dining at Penn.
"In theory, if we have a dining hall per college house, and if we are asking all college house participants to have a dining plan within that college house program, then you are ensuring a common experience between all students," he said.
"The issue I think here for Penn is how much of that is doable," he added, "and how much dining cannot be a main venue, but more of a supportive venue."
Blaik too acknowledged that as the residents of all 12 houses are distributed over three dining halls, physical limitations are going to hinder the ability of dining to support the college house system.
"You are asking students to cross the college house system and get into [three] dining halls," he said.
In addition, since Stouffer closed, students with meal plans are increasingly utilizing PD Express available at McClelland Hall, Hill College House and 1920 Commons. In particular, many freshmen use at least part of their meal plans at McClelland, opting for the grab-and-go option rather than embracing the community atmosphere administrators hope the dining system fosters.
But dining officials say that the express option, like the official dining halls, is just as useful. According to Campus Dining Services Marketing Manager Mary Ruggiero, since the opening of express dining in McClelland Hall, Quad students have begun to use the spot to meet and socialize.
"McClelland has since become a central gathering place for students living in the Quad," she said in an e-mail statement.
But despite administrators' efforts to boost on-campus options, Penn will continually be plagued by the nature of its urban locale and the dozens of retail vendors that accompany it -- many of which Penn itself brought to campus.
At Penn, more than 60 eateries and numerous food trucks, dot the borders around campus. And all too often, students are turning to these over Penn's own dining system, citing convenience, quality and price.
"You have a very experimental and entrepreneurial student body who wants to see what the market has to offer," Blaik said, noting that the University has tried to provide a variety of retail food venues similar to those located off campus.
With the relative success of the newly opened Philly Diner and The Freshgrocer, campus dining is facing even stiffer competition. As long as students embrace these options, the camaraderie that the college house system strives for continues to erode.
But according to Blaik, there's nothing wrong with students heading out of dorm rooms and off campus for their meals, noting that there is no need for Penn Dining to "interfere" and seek out what successfully attracts students to these retail outlets.
The embrace of off-campus eating, in part, results from the rushing to and from class, activities and team practice that plague the typical Penn student. And in the eyes of former Associate Vice President of Campus Services Larry Moneta -- who now works at Duke University -- Penn Dining will continue to face the challenge of a hectic student lifestyle.
Moneta said that while communal meals provided through Penn Dining work well with the college house system, these may not be the most realistic option for students.
Students' "lives are varying hours and food is just fuel," he said.
Although Penn Dining faces these challenges, several modifications have been implemented this year as a result of the recent changes to meal plans and the closing of Stouffer Dining Hall.
For one, a catering program within the college houses has proven quite successful this year, allowing intimate get-togethers of students to provide food at college house events.
The program "enables college houses to run smaller dining events for which students can use their dining meals," Brownlee said.
"That's not a full subsidy for not having our own dining hall, but it's something," he added.
And officials also say that Penn is considering a points system like that at some other urban schools, where students can place dollars on their ID cards for use at local vendors.
But administrators admit that if Penn Dining is to adequately address these challenges and supplement the college house system, the University must respond to the changes in student response and facilities of the past year.
Brownlee admits that the closing of Stouffer Dining Hall, once the primary dining facility for Quad residents, poses problems.
According to Blaik, mandating a meal plan for students living in college houses could bring in necessary revenue, but Penn is not currently in a position to do so, especially after shutting a dining hall in response to low student demand.
"We do not have the facilities, and we do not have the money for the facilities and do not have the capacity to force all of our students to have a mandated meal plan," he said.
"The realities of the fact that we now have only three dining halls and we have much more vibrant retail and food offerings on and around campus [lead to] the question of how does the dining program enhance and work with the college house system," he added.
