Seriously out of touch

At yesterday's University Council meeting, Phil Nichols stood up, grabbed a microphone and proceeded to lose his credibility.

Nichols -- head of Penn's College House system -- was asked by Provost Ron Daniels to speak about ways to make the Quad safer during Spring Fling at a session discussing the event's future.

From the moment Nichols stepped to the microphone, it was apparent that securing the Quad was the last thing he was interested in talking about. Instead, he decided to paint a grossly distorted picture of Spring Fling.

To Nichols, Fling -- which he referred to as the "Mid-Atlantic's largest alcohol party" -- is another regular Sodom and Gomorrah, rife with constant sex, crime and drunkenness.

He spoke of the horrors of college house deans getting assaulted and of finding students curled up on the verge of death in hallways.

And to top it all off, he dropped an f-bomb in front of President Amy Gutmann, Provost Daniels and the countless other students, staff, faculty and administrators in attendance.

He said that students constantly walk up to him and say, "Fuck you. This is Fling." But don't worry, he asked the audience to pardon his French and then quickly corrected himself, asking them to pardon his "American."

Then Nichols returned to his seat, tilted his head back and rolled his eyes as students and other administrators disagreed with him.

Nichols' harangue made few strides at convincing members of the University Council that Spring Fling was as bad as he said it was. But Nichols -- who left the meeting before I had a chance to talk to him directly -- did go a long way at convincing me and others in attendance that he is totally out of touch with students.

This is a problem, considering that he oversees the College House system, which is designed to be a hallmark of the student experience at Penn.

But as almost any student who has lived in one of Penn's college houses can tell you, they are in great need of reform. They are far from the all-inclusive communities that students are promised when they go on their tours of Penn. There is little, if any, sense of pride in living in Mayer Hall or English House.

Nichols should be acknowledged for playing an integral role in helping to create the College House system at Penn. He laid the groundwork and built the infrastructure to get the program off the ground. I believe that Nichols is well-intentioned and passionate about college houses.

But his actions at yesterday's University Council meeting underscore that he may not be the best person to take college houses to that next level -- the one that your friends at Yale and Princeton talk about.

What college houses need now more than ever is someone who can provide students with activities that they are excited about. I'm not talking about events like "The Myths and Facts about Drinking at Penn" or "The Folk Dance of Punjabi Farmers," both of which are taking place this week in college houses.

Rather, the College House system needs someone who can embrace the excitement that students have for events like Spring Fling and create a similar atmosphere within each house. This is not possible when the person in charge of the College House system disdains Fling and all it stands for.

Change is also not possible when Nichols and other college house administrators seem unwilling to listen to the students they are supposed to be looking out for. Several members from across student government organizations and Resident Advisers have told me about their frustration with Nichols, along with the rest of the College House administration, saying they are difficult to work with.

From my own experience in dealing with College House administrators, I get the impression that they think the problems rest not with the system but with its critics. They often point to internal survey data that show students are down-right bonkers for their college houses. But any Penn student can tell you that this just isn't true.

If an administration is unwilling to admit major flaws in its system, how can major change take place?

I realize that Nichols is dedicated to the college houses on Penn's campus. Heck, he has lived in Stouffer College House for close to a decade.

But his performance at yesterday's meeting highlighted his disconnect with the needs of the average Penn student. And when you're running a system that currently lacks relevance to most students, that's not a good thing.

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