According to some, one of the disadvantages of moving off campus is increased isolation, in addition to a reduction of University services.
Most students who live off campus feel that these issues are just sacrifices that have to be made in order to achieve residential independence. However, the Undergraduate Assembly aims to allow students to have their cake and eat it too -- with a proposal that calls for extending formerly dormitory-specific services to students who live off campus.
"We're focused on getting off-campus study space, and extending services like Ethernet, IT support and Penn's cable service," said Yelena Gershman, a Wharton junior and secretary of the UA.
She described these amenities as "things that are really basic, but essential to students."
This modified proposal comes in the aftermath of criticism generated by the original UA proposal which debuted last year. The original proposal advocated extending residential adviser-type services to off-campus living.
"The College House people were skeptical of having a system to compete with their own," Gershman said.
The administrators were not alone in their discontent, as resistance also emerged from students.
"Students were skeptical of having a semi-RA system," Gershman said, adding that there was "a lack of interest."
Now, months after the original proposal was released, UA members are confident that they can alter the plan and eventually achieve a positive consensus among all.
"We definitely scaled back the original proposal a lot," Gershman said.
UA member and College sophomore Gabby McLane said that the UA "got a really good response" from a survey they sent out regarding the issue.
"We feel that students off campus really want to have a community past 40th Street," she said.
The proposal features "meet-and-greet" sessions to foster interaction between neighbors.
"It would ultimately be amazing if we could have some sort of tie between the University and students living off campus," Gershman said, adding that the only connections that presently exist are for "students in the Greek system."
Reactions to the new proposal seem mixed.
"It sounds kind of stupid to me," College senior Brian Falk said.
Falk said he would probably not take advantage of the services, especially the study areas.
College junior Emily Aanestad agreed.
"There's plenty of study areas," she said. "If people really want to go to group study areas they can go to the library."
But Aanestad seemed more enthusiastic about other aspects of the proposal.
"Off-campus block parties would be great," she said.
Overall, Aanestad thought the proposal would "help a lot of people."
McLane believes the proposal will accomplish just that.
"Right now it looks pretty promising," she said. "We're excited to better off-campus facilities."
