The Undergraduate Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on the current Penn College House System last night.
The resolution addresses three main issues of residential life -- the placement of freshmen; the interaction between students, faculty and administration and the allocation of resources within the college houses.
In an effort to unify future freshman classes, the resolution urged the administration to institute "Freshman Recommended Housing." This policy would designate specific college houses as ideal for freshmen and would ensure that all freshmen who opted to live in the specified housing would be guaranteed a spot.
Presently, the UA has identified Hill College House and the three college houses that compose the Quadrangle as housing preferable for freshmen. The UA is looking to add one or two additional college houses to this list.
"We want any freshman who chooses to live in the Freshman Recommended Housing to have that opportunity," College sophomore and UA member Zach Rosenblum said.
He saw the timing of the resolution as key to its success.
"With the departure of President Rodin ... we've been given an opportunity to evaluate the College House System."
Following the trend set by recent UA proposals, the college housing resolution was based on a survey in which 1,700 undergraduates participated.
Interviews conducted with current college house deans, residential advisers and faculty masters also contributed to the resolution.
Rosenblum characterized the resolution as "a way to improve students' on-campus living experience for many years to come."
The resolution also seeks to enhance the interactions between students and their house deans and faculty masters. Survey results suggested that these relationships are severely underdeveloped, with 58 percent of on-campus residents saying that they never interact with their faculty master.
Sean Walker, a UA member who co-authored the resolution with Rosenblum, wants to see an increase in the number of college house deans. He advocated instituting "administrative assistants" to handle the day-to-day running of the college house, so that the deans could focus more on communicating with students.
Further efforts will be made to increase interaction, such as instituting a competitive college house sports league and a college house Homecoming Day.
These activities will "build pride amongst the college houses," Rosenblum said.
Despite its strong stance on many issues, the resolution is not yet final. It will be reviewed by the UA Steering Committee -- a group consisting of leaders from various campus organizations -- later this week.
"While it's significant that the proposal passed unanimously on the UA, it's also significant that we're taking into account the broad range of student opinions on this campus," UA Chairman and College senior Jason Levy said.
The final proposal will be voted on at next Sunday's UA meeting, according to members.
