STAFF EDITORIAL: Building excitement

Two unrelated programs that were unveiled last week combine nicely to make Philadelphia a more attractive place for students to live and work.

Campus Visit Philadelphia seeks to promote the city as a college town, attracting students to area schools.

The University's planned incubator for high-tech startups aims to keep students, who might otherwise go to New York or Silicon Valley to seek funding for their innovative ideas, at Penn and in Philadelphia.

The two programs complement each other remarkably well, attracting students and encouraging them to stay.

Campus Visit hopes to convince students from around the world the Philadelphia is the place for college, and the University hopes to convince students from around the world that this is the place for business.

Together the programs take a step towards increasing student retention in the Philadelphia area, which has traditionally been very poor, by making students more excited about coming to school and going to work here.

Campus Visit makes students excited to come to Philadelphia, while the incubator and other such companies make them more likely to stay. Both projects serve Philadelphia's long-term goal in keeping students in the city to further economic development.

These plans also provide a solid base for the University's long-term goal of making University City a hub for high-tech research, and make University City increasingly attractive to businesses and, University officials hope, to residents.

While several years will be needed to see the ultimate success of both the Campus Visit and the Penn incubator, they demonstrate the University's commitment to making the city a more attractive place to lean, live and work.

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