Everyone is very excited about the new Hill building, as they should be. Out of the millions of dollars Penn rakes in each year from donors, it is about time that some of the funding be utilized to improve undergraduate student housing.
Now freshmen will no longer have to suffer from the stigma of living in Hill. (Admit it, we have all heard the scoff and seen the eye roll when someone says, “Yeah … I live in Hill.”) The Quad should not be the only highly prized residence for Penn freshmen, and it will not be anymore.
What about the rest of the undergraduate student body, though? The sophomores, juniors and seniors will not benefit in any way, shape or form from the construction of this highly expensive, new dorm.
Now, many students might counter this statement by asserting that they do not want to live on campus after freshman year anyway. However, many Penn upperclassmen report feeling forced to move off campus, with few options in the matter.
This is largely because there is simply not enough residential space for all — or even most — of Penn’s upperclassmen to live on campus. While Penn guarantees housing for all freshmen, upperclassmen are given no such promise. Last year, I, in addition to several other students, applied to Penn’s on-campus high-rise buildings, and we were told that there were no more available units.
Whether being refused on-campus housing or choosing to live off campus, the results for the prosperity of student life and the Penn community are the same.
By moving into off-campus houses and apartments with members of one’s fraternity, sorority, a capella group or sports team, students are fundamentally removed from the diversity of Penn’s community. They are deprived from living with and learning about people with different backgrounds, interests and knowledge.
I miss my freshman hall, where I lived with a random group of freshmen and was exposed to every type of Penn student imaginable.
Even if I was able to obtain on-campus housing this past year, though, the diversity that was present in the freshman dorms would be non-existent, since most upperclassmen have been removed from the dorms. Locating a football player or a fraternity boy in an on-campus residential house would be quite challenging to say the least.
So while I am sure that the Penn community — as a whole — is grateful for the new Hill building and how it will benefit freshmen, I would like to suggest that similar actions be taken to remedy the housing situation for upperclassmen as well.
An increase in availability of on-campus dorms for students after freshman year would drive a return to the culture of on-campus living and would yield incredibly positive results for the connections and overall unity among students throughout the Penn community.
Jennie Shulkin is a College junior. Her email address is jenshulkin@gmail.com.
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