Students reflect on living in Axis apartment building one semester into Penn's lease

Students reflected on their housing experience one semester into Penn's lease of the Axis apartment building.

Axis, located next to Kings Court English College House, is serving as housing for upperclass Penn students for the 2024-25 academic year while Ware College House undergoes renovations. This year, just under half of residents are second-year students, around 7-8% are transfers, and the remaining residents are upperclassmen, according to Residential Services.

Axis contains 130 single rooms, each with their own private bathroom and a refrigerator, televisions, and occasionally a walk-in closet. 

College sophomore and Axis resident Aidan Ford said that during housing selection period, having a single was the most important consideration. 

“I got kind of a terrible housing selection slot, and I realized that if I went with the high rises or something like that, I couldn’t guarantee that I would have a room to myself,” Ford said.

He added that he has had a positive experience living in Axis so far. 

“I have no real complaints,” Ford said. “My room is kind of massive, way bigger than I was expecting and way bigger than any other college houses I’ve been in.” 

Another resident, College sophomore Drew Dunham, said that he picked Axis after living in KCECH his freshman year. Similar to Ford, he said that he was drawn to the guarantee of having a single. 

“If you enjoy silence, this is a really good place. I see different people at different times, but it’s very uncommon to run into a group of people as opposed to the high rises,” Dunham said. 

Unlike most other residences on campus, Axis uses a steam heat radiator system. Most other housing options have heating systems that allow residents to turn the heat on and off and control the temperature. At Axis, the heat level is based on the outside air temperature and the air within the building, giving residents slightly less control. 

“In our rooms, we have air conditioners that we can turn on, so when it was hot we had more control over the temperature, but now we have radiators," Dunham said. "Radiators get hot way too quickly, and you can’t even turn it on yourself — so it’s a very extreme heat.” 

Penn Residential Services told The Daily Pennsylvanian that residents in the Axis have two channels through which they can communicate their issues, depending on the severity. For non-emergent concerns, residents can describe their problem via a listserv, which then gets funneled to the staff and property manager. The building and property manager are responsible for addressing any concerns with the facility.

According to Residential Services, there is an ongoing conversation with Axis' property management company to ensure that repeated concerns such as heating issues are addressed. 

For emergency situations, residents can contact the front desk, which is open 24 hours a day.

“For all of our college house residents, including Axis, there is a robust system," Courtney Dombroski, senior associate director of Residential & Hospitality Services, said. "If [residents] want to reach out to Living at Penn or anything, we are here to support students with any facilities questions or needs that they have.”