A truthful tour? Not all the time

In an ideal world, all of Penn's college houses would be air-conditioned, the blue-light phone response time would be 30 seconds and Penn students would stampede -- in record numbers -- to every football game.

Although we do not live in that world, some campus tour guides apparently believe that we do -- and tell prospective students all about it.

Every day, student tour guides escort visitors from across the country -- and around the world -- about campus, generally following a route that includes visits to College Green, Locust Walk, Huntsman Hall, the Quadrangle and Franklin Field.

A Daily Pennsylvanian reporter recently went undercover on several Penn campus tours, posing as a prospective freshman from Michigan.

The area known as Superblock -- which encompasses the high rises -- and other, older dorms such as Hill College House are systematically avoided. The entire journey takes one hour and 15 minutes and is led by a completely autonomous student volunteer.

Volunteers are required to attend information sessions, observe veteran tour guides and conduct supervised tours as part of their training.

Tour guide Deena Levine's training included tours that contained information that even she was unsure of at the time.

"There were times [during training] where I was like, 'Do they really mean that? Are they sure?'" the College sophomore said. "There are some tour guides where I don't know where they get their information."

Levine, whose tour was largely honest, reported that she tells visiting students that football games are well-attended because her tour-guide training made it seem that she was supposed to.

Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said that the Admissions Office does not approve of presenting false or exaggerated information.

"In no way do we want our tour guides to be in a position of saying more than what really exists," Stetson said. "They should not be in a position to go beyond what the University is."

But one male sophomore tour guide -- who spoke on condition of anonymity -- admitted to sometimes going beyond the truth to put Penn in the most flattering light.

"The way I feel is that to get the point across, sometimes you go a little bit beyond what the truth is," he said. "I don't think we make things up maliciously; we just package Penn the best way we can."

The tour guide also said that he thinks it is necessary to "clean up" facts about certain traditions.

"Do we lie? No. Do we give Penn the image it needs? Yes," he said. "Hey Day is a great tradition, but if you told [prospective students] that the seniors throw mustard and bags of urine, it wouldn't seem like a good tradition."

Over the course of two campus tours taken by the DP reporter, five main issues became apparent -- issues that seem to be pervasive on many tours.

Air Conditioning

Taylor Jenkins, a Wharton junior, claimed that all college houses feature air conditioning. In truth, only seven of the 11 college houses feature air conditioning.

DuBois, Gregory, King's Court/ English and Hill college houses do not have air conditioning.

Lauren Hedvat, the president of Kite and Key -- the group that provides student tour guides -- said she thinks tours are about selling the University but disapproved of the air-conditioning claim.

"That should not have happened," Hedvat said. "There isn't false information that should be given out at any time on these tours."

When he was reached after multiple attempts, Jenkins declined to comment on the information he presented in his tour.

Campus Security

On his tour, Jenkins also claimed that the response time on blue-light security phones is 30 seconds. The actual time between the phone being activated and an officer arriving at the scene is impossible to calculate, according to Domenic Ceccanecchio, director of Security and Technical Services.

"I can't tell you if it is going to be a minute, two minutes, five minutes," Ceccanecchio said. "It depends on what is going on on campus."

As for the claimed time of 30 seconds, Ceccanecchio said he did not know where Jenkins got that number.

"I don't think it's intentionally misleading," Ceccanecchio said, "but it doesn't make any sense."

Huntsman Study Rooms

During the stopover in Huntsman Hall, about halfway through the tour, Jenkins showed the study rooms with flat-screen computers and SmartBoards -- dry-erase boards that translate anything written on them into the computers -- and claimed that all Penn students are welcome to use them.

In reality, only students who are taking Wharton classes may reserve the study rooms. Non-Wharton students can enter them if they are empty but are required to leave as soon as a Wharton student arrives.

Football Games

Football games were portrayed by both Jenkins and Levine as being an extremely active part of Penn student life. Levine told her assembled group that football games are "very well attended" when in reality, three of the past four years have seen declining attendance, and Athletic Director Steve Bilsky recently described student attendance as "disappointing."

Average attendance is about one-fifth of the capacity of Franklin Field. The University is currently engaged in a two-year marketing effort designed to increase attendance at football games.

Language Programs

According to Jenkins, if a student wants to learn a language not offered by the University, Penn will hire a professor to teach the student one-on-one.

"I know there is this rumor out there that we will just do anything," said Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl, the Director of the Penn Language Center. "It's not as simple as saying, 'Anything goes.'"

Van Deusen-Scholl said that in addition to having proven academic value, an unoffered language must have at least six students express interest in it before the University begins searching for a suitable professor -- which it may not find.

Buyer Beware

Christa Cunningham, a high school senior from Milwaukee, said that she usually believes what campus tour guides tell her.

"I think for the most part they give you an honest portrayal of what the universities are like," Cunningham said after being led around Penn. She added that she has visited at least 14 schools, including Harvard, Stanford and Princeton universities.

Regardless of the discrepancies between some tour guides' claims and the reality of life at Penn, Stetson seems confident in the current system and did not advocate any changes.

However, he did stress that he does not want tour guides to dispense falsehoods about the University and said that he believes Penn can speak for itself.

"We don't want them to embellish it in any way," Stetson said. "We don't suggest they do anything to overstate Penn, and I don't think it needs to be overstated."

Stetson still warned that the nature of tours requires the same sort of consumer caution that any type of sales pitch might warrant.

"You're not inclined to believe everything you hear," he said. "What you do is get the flavor of the place, get the feel of the place."

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