Maybe it's time I stopped playing golf and got some real exercise, because it's certainly a hassle getting from 38th and Hamilton Walk to 33rd and Walnut in 10 minutes flat.
Does the University know we have trouble getting from one class to the next in the allotted time? Maybe they tried to solve the problem with mandatory student membership at the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center.
Arriving to class in time to hear the first few minutes of a lecture or presentation can be crucial. Just ask the listeners who tuned in late to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" radio program.
The simplest remedy -- increasing the 10-minute break between classes to 15 minutes -- might not be worth the cost. For the many centrally located lecture halls, the extra five minutes would be an unnecessary abridgement of class time. Over the course of four years, these breaks result in thousands of wasted minutes. Quite a few rounds of golf.
Actually, 10 full minutes between classes is probably adequate. But the typical lecture definitely goes past the 50-minute mark. For now, if (1) professors make an effort to end as scheduled, and (2) those holding class on the periphery of campus wait an extra moment or two before starting as a courtesy to those with a longer walk, all could proceed as scheduled with minimal disruption.
However, at the dawn of a new era at Penn, we look to the east and wonder: if making it to class on time is a challenge today, will expansion -- acquiring 24 acres of postal lands -- exacerbate the problem?
The answer is not to abandon expansion and modernization. Maintaining a state-of-the-art facility means growing to suit needs and keeping pace with developments. Making things bigger and more advanced can result in failure if you don't plan for the complexities that it creates.
Past experience shows the inconvenience of not thinking things through. Complications that surfaced when David Rittenhouse Labs added computers to its lecture halls is reason to deliberate carefully before upgrading old buildings or constructing new facilities on the postal lands.
Last year, I made the trek from Leidy Labs to DRL three times a week. Naturally, by the time I traversed Penn's campus, most of the seats of DRL A1 were filled. Except the seats all the way on the right -- the ones with a partial view.
Allow me to explain. A1 is a regular lecture hall with a long table in the front -- the right side of which sports a metal arm that holds a computer resting in mid-air. Many professors use the computer to display higher dimensional mathematical models and animations that would be impossible to represent using a piece of chalk. The computer certainly enhances the learning experience, aiding in a clear understanding of the material.
Yet, its very presence inevitably results in many students having limited visibility of the blackboard. A similar scenario exists in all DRL lecture halls. The technology is not physically integrated into the calculus class and, instead, serves as an obstruction between students and their studies (see rules of golf: rule 24-1).
Let's not squander our resources in poor planning. It is possible for computer technology to be incorporated into the existing system without compromising the fundamentals. It is possible to build bigger buildings and expand the campus without causing students to be late. It is possible for improvements, renovations and constructions to be mapped carefully, so as not to ignore the crucial details.
As the University plans to buy the postal lands, it needs to consider the DRL phenomenon: mindless upgrades do not guarantee a better student experience. We must proceed with caution because of the many unintended consequences that complexity breeds.
Expanding the Penn campus eastward is a grand opportunity, but it must be carefully planned -- maximizing class time, minimizing the small breaks, while ensuring that all students can be on time. In the end, perhaps being a golfer is the way to go, because the best way to get around campus just might be via golf cart.
Sarah Eskreis-Winkler is a College sophomore from Wynnewood, Pa.
