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The Quadrangle, which is smaller in size than the high rises, allows for the development of close relationships, creating a communal feeling. [Andrew Margolies/The Daily Pennsylvanian]

If it's cold outside, Stephani Robinson won't let a student leave without a jacket.

"They're my children," said Robinson, a Dubois College House Services Attendant. "Anybody that comes through this door, we try to make it like home."

"Miss Stephani," as she is known to Dubois residents, is one of many house staff members who know each student in the house and make a conscious effort to play an active role in their lives.

It is this kind of community bonding that the college house system was intended to foster in every dormitory. Students, faculty and staff were supposed to feel connected to each other and to the house itself.

"Everybody here really feels like they're members of a family," Dubois College House Dean Patricia Williams said. "It's not just rhetoric. It's a real feeling. There's someone here that they can always go to, and I think the students feel that."

But it is debatable whether the vast majority of college houses have achieved the goals that were set three years ago. At best, successful communities in campus dormitories are few and far between.

While some houses like Dubois and Stouffer have been successful at retaining students and integrating academics into residential life, others, especially all three high rises, have come far short of expectations.

That may be a direct function of the size of the houses. Whereas each high rise building contains more than 20 residential floors, Dubois and Stouffer each house fewer than 300 residents.

According to Stouffer College House Dean Anne Mickle, when the college house system was first implemented, the optimal size for a community was identified as 400 residents. But for some houses, that number is virtually impossible to reach.

The high rises have long been considered to be "anonymous" dormitories, where the vast majority of residents don't even know everyone on their hall. The historically antisocial dormitories have natural and structural obstacles in the way of creating a housewide community.

Harnwell College House Dean Leslie Delauter said that as hard as the faculty and staff try, the most difficult aspect of creating that community is dealing with issues of size.

"It's the thing we're always battling," Delauter said. "It definitely handicaps us. It's not even the structure. It's the sheer numbers."

Williams said she believes that when it comes to college houses, smaller is better, emphasizing that getting to know each other's names is a major step.

"I think [size] is crucial to our success," Williams said. "It's always going to be difficult for the high rises to achieve the same sense of community."

Although students and faculty have made a conscious effort to foster the kind of connections in the Hamilton Village towers that are seen in smaller houses, it is clear that there is more work to be done.

"The high rises really remain the next challenge," University President Judith Rodin said. "That is something that we'll take on in the next period of time and try to program them to behave even more effectively as college houses."

Two years ago, the University developed a plan to renovate all three high rises and build new low rise residences on Locust Walk to help solve the community-building problem. However, funding problems caused the plans to be scrapped, leaving Delauter and others with the difficult task of creating community in traditionally antisocial dormitories.

"There's something about the verticalness of the whole building that makes things different," Delauter said. "People on the 21st floor have no knowledge of what's going on on the 6th floor."

When the college house system was implemented three years ago, it made more of an impact on some dormitories than others. While the communities in Dubois and Stouffer been relatively strong for years, the high rises were forced to start from scratch.

Mickle credits an already existing sense of community that was developed five years prior to the implementation of the college house system for much of the success that Stouffer has experienced.

Dubois Faculty Master Howard Stevenson said that the history of Dubois house -- created about 30 years ago in protest to the University's response to issues of color -- made the transition from dormitory to college house almost needless.

"We have tried to put together a theme," Stevenson said. "You're here to influence as well as be influenced by Penn."

However, the concept of an interwoven academic and residential community was a much harder sell in the traditionally-subdued high rises. With 20-plus floors of residences to unite, the task of creating community on a hallway is a daunting one, let alone the entire house.

"The building wasn't designed as a college house," Harrison College House Dean Frank Pellicone said. "Having 24 floors of residence and not a tremendous amount of meeting space is an issue."

One of the reasons for the social divide may be the smaller communities that exist within the high rises. Each high rise has certain floors dedicated to specific residential programs, which may be taking away from the ability of the house to function as a unit.

Another issue for the high rises is forcing communities on students, who may not be interested. Often by their sophomore and junior years, students have created their own niches and found peer groups for themselves. They may not be nearly as invested in developing new bonds and friendships as they were prior to moving to Hamilton Village.

"When we started, nobody would show up for anything," Delauter said of organizing house events. "I would just have to pull teeth."

Some students say that a sense of togetherness in a house is crucial to developing a strong community. This may be part of the reason that Quad college houses have shown some success.

With incoming freshmen immediately seeking a community to call their own, the four Quad houses are at an advantage when it comes to student investment. There is a large scale effort made by faculty and staff to get Penn's newest recruits involved in housewide events from the moment they arrive on campus.

But this attitude is in stark contrast to the lack of involvement seen in many of the upperclassmen dormitories. Dubois Graduate Associate Vinay Harpalani spent a year living in the graduate towers and said he felt disconnected from even his hallmates.

"The grad towers are pretty anonymous," Harpalani said. "You don't really know the people who are living next door to you."

Now in his third year residing in Dubois, Harpalani said he realizes the importance of connecting with the house, not just with his roommates.

"We do a lot more housewide events than suite events," he said. "In the high rises, events are organized by suite. Here, we can do things on a more housewide level."

Structurally, Stouffer is unique among upperclassmen houses because of its emphasis on communal living. However, some students say that the environment created by these structural differences is a positive factor.

"People tend to have their doors open a lot," Engineering sophomore Matt Sklar said. "Even though there are predominantly singles, you feel like you're in a suite."

Although she has yet to find a panacea for the social deficits of the high rises, Delauter said that she and the other staff members have made a conscious effort to "make the high rise culture a little more personal." After three years of organizing events, such as house dinners and concerts, Delauter said she does see a difference.

"I think what we've done really well is make students feel like they're known by us," she said. "There's a way in which we feel that we're sort of mutually invested in each other."

Many agree with Delauter, saying that the investment of its members is one of the keys to a successful community. And some say that the commitment of student leaders is nearly as important as the work done by the house's resident advisers.

"They have a higher level of investment in the community," Mickle said of Stouffer residents. "The community is shaped how they want it to be shaped. It's a very student-led, student-run house."

Both Dubois and Stouffer put a strong emphasis on the equality of every member of the community. Students, faculty and staff are all on the same level in both houses, and Williams said she believes the students truly buy into that concept.

"Our students are very outspoken because the staff here encourages them to voice their opinions and ideas," she said. "We emphasize treating everybody equally. That's something that carries through on a daily basis."

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