Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Aaron Goodman A chain link fence prevents entry to an empty parking lot under the Walnut Steet Bridge in the postal lands. [Click to enlarge]

As the postal-lands purchase neared closing and University officials began to construct their plans for the PennConnects eastward expansion projects, student and faculty groups were eager to have their say in the future of the campus.

When University officials revealed their plans for PennConnects earlier this fall, they did so confident that they reflected those groups' desires.

And though the student groups they consulted are largely pleased with the results, they say PennConnects is not without its flaws.

In its role advising Penn President Amy Gutmann on expansion plans, the Campus Development Planning Committee held 15 months of talks with trustees, alumni, neighbors, students and faculty - a process Gutmann called "broadly consultative."

The CDPC began meeting with the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and the Undergraduate Assembly in the fall of 2005, also getting in touch with different schools and departments like Athletics, Associate Vice President Mike Harris said.

"The process was pretty aggressive," he said. "We were starting from a blank slate but thought it was important to be broad and thorough."

Student and faculty input was "necessary for analyzing what campus was like and what it needed," said Mark Kocent, the principal planner for Facilities and Real Estate Services.

For the UA and GAPSA - student-government bodies for undergraduates and graduate students, respectively - that meant putting together a joint task force and working closely with students through town-hall meetings and surveys to prepare suggestions.

At the top of the UA's list was increased student housing, more entertainment venues and the preservation of green space, UA Chairman Jason Karsh said.

Meanwhile, graduate student requests focused on the development of on-campus family-style housing and renovations of existing graduate-related buildings.

After two years of waiting, Karsh said that he is pleased overall with how the UA's feedback has been adopted in the plans, but that fewer of the suggestions brought up by graduate students were adopted.

Kocent said incorporating all the suggestions was difficult because the land imposes certain restrictions on construction, though the suggestions the UA and GAPSA presented were influential in the planning.

In addition, Harris noted that recent off-campus housing developments like Domus and the HUB were in direct response to the housing-related feedback.

GAPSA President Dan Grabell said he is pleased that those projects are being built, but he noted the urgency of bringing graduate student housing to campus since many graduate students are now being driven to Center City and beyond.

One of the CDPC's main contributions to the planning processes may result in one of the more visible components of campus expansion - new recreational and athletic green spaces to the east of the Palestra.

Those areas will help offset a smaller Hill Field after a new college house is built there, and it will allow for a more segregated layout.

"It's a domino effect," Kocent said. "The more non-academic functions we can move east, the more space we free up at the core of campus for academic buildings."

"We're planning for the entirety of campus," Harris said. "The UA and GAPSA have helped us tremendously."

---

About this series: This four-part series examines various aspects and effects of the future campus expansion

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools