University President Amy Gutmann announced yesterday that Harrison College House will be renamed after convicted sex offender and former Penn professor Tracy McIntosh.
The announcement came as part of a sweeping change to the college house system in which all 12 dorms will be renamed after prominent figures on Penn's campus.
University officials announced one name change last semester: Hamilton will be named Rodin College House, after Penn's former president Judith Rodin.
But Gutmann could not stop at just one.
"I have no self control," Gutmann said. "When I was a little kid, I would just eat cookie after cookie. My mom would always say, 'Amy, you have to control your hunger.'
"I learned to control the hunger," she said. "Now I can't stop renaming college houses!"
Gutmann said she wanted the name of every college house to reflect the Penn Compact, her three-pronged plan for the University's future.
McIntosh, a former Penn professor, was charged with sexual assault in December 2004 after inappropriately touching the possibly incapacitated niece of a close friend.
Gutmann said that McIntosh College House will warn against "any kind of excessive and unwarranted touching -- especially under the button.
"For those of you who will be drinking during Spring Fling: don't talk to nieces of your close friends -- it could land you in jail," she added.
The naming is also to remind students to never attend office hours alone, Gutmann said. McIntosh allegedly assaulted the young woman in his School of Medicine office.
"People will pass by McIntosh College House and say 'Gosh, I don't want to be a sexual offender when I grow up,'" Gutmann added.
The house will feature a new residential program known as the Sexual Assault Floor, which will educate students about the dangers of sexual harassment.
Additionally, Gutmann is considering renaming Hamilton as Kors College House instead of Rodin next fall.
History professor Alan Charles Kors defended the free speech rights of a Penn student who took a photo of a couple appearing to have sex in Hamilton window.
"No one has had a bigger impact on Hamilton College House than Alan Charles Kors -- aside from the couple who had sex in the window, that is," Gutmann added.
Kors said he refused to accept the offer unless the dorm title would include all three of his names.
"Everybody forgets the damn Charles," Kors said. "Every time the Charles is missing, I kill a kitten."
