Staff Editorial: Wrong priorities for Hill Square

Each morning, students living at 34th and Spruce wake up to the sights and sounds of construction workers transforming mounds of dirt into a renovated Hill Field. The plan is to turn the former recreational space into Hill Square, a park complete with benches, a red brick walkway and various sculptures.

Although the case could be made that Hill Field was plenty green as it stood before the construction, the University's hope is that this $2 million endeavor will make the area more visually appealing.

But in ripping up the last open field on campus and turning it into a no-game zone, Penn administrators clearly did not consider the side effects.

Intramural and club sports teams have used Hill Field for years as a practice and game location. Even after the addition of a diagonal concrete path, Hill Field was still the best place on campus to hold soccer practices and pickup football games.

Now, with the field seemingly out of play for good, students seeking an open grassy area are literally being sent to play underneath the train tracks.

The University has been sending club and intramural teams down to 31st Street in a sea-level area beyond the hockey rink to play out their seasons in the gloom of freight trains and the shadows of office buildings.

These facilities are inadequate at best, and there is not enough time to go around for all of the teams seeking to play. As for students looking to hold an ultimate frisbee game after class, their interests must apparently take a back seat to the need for more granite and brick walkways.

In short, while the University is spending millions of dollars on making the center of campus worthy of brochure photos, students are being displaced to the outskirts of campus just to get some outdoor exercise.

The initial plan was to make up for the lost space by creating new recreational fields in the additional area gained through the purchase of the postal lands. But that addition to campus won't be finalized until 2008, and the fields won't be ready until long after that. So for the next seven years, Penn students will be sent down to the river to play a game of flag football.

When it is finished, Hill Square will undoubtedly be a nice addition to the campus landscaping project. But by turning Hill Field into Hill Square, it seems the University believes the addition of photogenic spots on campus is more important than the desires of Penn students.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.