U. pays $80,000 in dorm fees

The University has paid the City of Philadelphia approximately $80,000 in dorm fees for this year, marking the first time in 20 years the University has complied with the city law. "For the first time in the history of mankind, the University of Pennsylvania has purchased residential housing licenses," said Bennett Levin, commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections. The fee, which the University will now pay annually to the city, covers the licenses on residential units owned on campus – from dormitories to certain University-owned fraternities and sororities. The fees range from $175 for the Kappa Alpha Society at 3803 Locust to $10,000 each for the Graduate Towers and the Quadrangle. Fees are based on $25 per living-unit in each building. In total, the University is required to pay $7,500 for 23 fraternity and sorority houses and $71,850 for dormitories. Housing licenses, as required by Philadelphia law, allow the city to inventory and inspect properties, Levin said. "It enables us to keep inventory and know what we have to inspect," he said. "It also enables us, when people do not renew the license, to see whether [residences] have been abandoned?to control squatting in the city." Inspections of University residences and fraternities and sororities will take place in the near future, Levin said. "We have received some complaints about the conditions in the High Rise[s]," Levin said. "Those will be addressed." The fee is being paid for the first time, Levin said, partially because the University was threatened with a violation that would revoke its right to its residences – and partially because the University sought an ordinance for utility work on campus. City Council would not grant that ordinance until the University complied with the law, he said. "I think the University finally came to the realization that the department was serious, and had the support of City Council and the Mayor," Levin said. In September, the Department of Licenses and Inspections claimed the University owed the city $1.6 million dollars in back fees for its residences. However, the University contended it was not responsible for paying a city occupancy fee – which is required as part of a 20-year-old city ordinance that mandates charges of $25 per living unit in multi-tenant city housing – but has agreed to pay from this year onward. "The issue of retroactive fees is still unresolved," University Director of City and Commonwealth Relations Paul Cribbins said. "It just has not been resolved, and we haven't had anything scheduled."

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