Students lay out vision for development

Students imagined what Penn could look like in the year 2030 at a town hall meeting last night, and their vision was heavy on housing and retail.

About 40 students and administrators met to discuss the results of a campus development survey that the Joint Undergraduate-Graduate Student Task Force on Campus Development distributed to all students last December.

Student leaders presented a hypothetical vision for Penn's campus in 2030 that included a Locust Walk extending past the Palestra to the postal lands, a new west Schuylkill River dockside and a revived commercial corridor on Walnut Street.

Interest in campus development has been spawned by the University's acquisition next year of 24 acres of U.S. Postal Service property east of campus.

However, the suggestions students are currently working on don't apply solely to the postal lands.

Wharton senior Cynthia Wong, who chairs the Undergraduate Assembly's Development Committee, said, "It's about campus in general."

Administrators at the town hall meeting included Principal Planner for Facilities and Real Estate Services Mark Kocent and Associate Vice President Michael Harris.

Suggestions presented by the task force that reflected the survey responses included developing housing, retail and a student center.

Task force member and fourth-year Engineering graduate student Alice Chou said that there is need for more graduate-student housing, adding that the University currently can only accommodate 7 percent of all graduate and professional students.

Graduate student housing "is an anchor for us to create a community," Chou said.

While these ideas are only suggestions, student leaders believe they are representative of what the student body is looking for.

"This is our interpretation from what we heard" from students, Wong said.

Students at the meeting raised concerns about preserving green space, adding room for religious organizations and cultural groups, ensuring that campus stays cohesive and dealing with issues related to construction.

Another concern raised was whether today's opinions will still hold in a few years.

"Kids in 2015 may feel very differently than they do right now," Associate Director of the Greenfield Intercultural Center Sean Vereen said.

But student leaders feel confident that the top priorities expressed in the survey have been consistent over the past four years and will remain top priorities in the future.

The Campus Development Planning Committee's mid-year report, issued this month, reflected many of the suggestions made by the student task force. That committee is headed by Daniels and Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli and includes several other administrators and deans.

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