To the Editor:
I am pleased to see the DP's interest in the planned Weigle Information Commons in Van Pelt Library. Your article and subsequent editorial make clear that undergraduate students want and need more group-study space.
This is precisely why School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rebecca Bushnell and I have raised the money and invested staff planning resources in this project. The formal opening of the Weigle Commons will be April 4. We will host a student preview prior to that date.
The Weigle Information Commons will add 12 more group-study rooms and a 25-person seminar room, plus an array of other group-learning environments, to the growing mix of team-study space in Van Pelt.
Since 1995, the library has been creating group-study and group-teaching facilities in Van Pelt. We already have 17 group-study rooms available on several floors.
In addition, we have built four 12-person seminar facilities and two 18-person teaching/classroom facilities, which are available whenever formal classes are not in session.
The DP urged attention to the needs of Nursing and Engineering students. I am pleased to report that Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt and I have already embarked on architectural planning for a complete remake of the Engineering Library. We are also working with our school colleagues to plan a major renovation of the Biomedical Library, which serves Nursing, Medicine and Biology.
I can assure you that the Weigle Information Commons is a preview of even more good things to come.
Carton Rogers
The author is vice provost and director of libraries at Penn
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