'Castle' may move to High Rise North

The Community Service Living Learning Program will be relocated next fall. Students involved in community service will have a new program center on campus next year, but at the same time, a successful residential service program may face a tough move into its own new home. A group of student community service leaders proposed a nonresidential service "hub" modeled on the Kelly Writers House last week, even as other service leaders grappled with administrators over where the residential Community Service Living Learning Program will go. The CSLLP program will likely end up in High Rise North next fall when it vacates its current home in the Castle to make room for the return of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, according to CSLLP Program Director Margaret Quern, a College senior. But if the program does move into High Rise North -- to be known as Hamilton College House under the new residential system -- it may face next year without any familiar faces. None of the Castle's 25 current residents is willing to move into the high rise, Quern said. Director of Academic Programs and Residence Life Chris Dennis, who has been meeting with Quern to discuss the program's move, said he couldn't comment on possible locations until a final decision is made, within the next few days. Planners are also considering an off-campus location to supplement the program if it moves into Superblock, to accommodate the students who don't want to follow it there. Some current Castle residents would be willing to move the program off campus. But if it moves to the high rises, Quern said she would like to see a "baby Castle" program for freshmen on campus, while an upperclassman program continues off campus. If the new college house plan works out as administrators hope, the community service program should flourish in High Rise North -- but it must attract students. Wherever the program ends up, the University will try to locate the proposed service "hub" near the future home of the CSLLP. Nonresidential hubs are supposed to provide students with a location for thematic workshops, speeches and programs outside of any particular residence. Modeled after the Kelly Writers House -- which serves as a base for writing-related activities across campus -- the new center would play a similar role for community service, said the students who proposed it last week. The center should increase collaboration among the different service groups, also strengthening the bond between those groups and University-run community service organizations like the Center for Community Partnerships, said Laura Cobey , who coordinated the student committee. Cobey, a Nursing junior and a member of the Mayor's Commission on Literacy, added that the project would allow for greater "intellectual exchange" between students involved in community service. Such students currently work out of several disparate offices. The proposal would give them a place to meet under one roof. It also calls for moving the Program for Student-Community Involvement's office -- which will lose its space when renovations to Houston Hall begin next fall -- to the new center. The project said it would allow the University to make good on promises made at last April's Presidents' Summit on America's Future to increase involvement with the community, College junior Hillary Aisenstein said. The proposed hub would also bring Penn up to speed with other Ivy League schools, which all now have or are building such a center, according to English Professor Peter Conn, who advised the committee. Aisenstein, who helped write the proposal for the center, said that in addition to bringing groups together, the center would provide space for activities and services that don't now have a home. For example, the proposal calls for space to house tutors and a library containing materials on urban education and volunteerism. The plan also calls for several rooms to house workshops and meetings, a seminar room for academically based community service courses, a large lounge and office spaces. Students involved in the planning said they don't have a specific location in mind for the hub, but that it should not be far from the center of campus, even if it would be close to the CSLLP's home.

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