Word: dorm
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...provides plenty of fodder for armchair sociologists quick to find an incisive explanation for any new trend. While finding any people who say they are unhappy with life in Pennypacker may be surprisingly difficult, it's a cinch to find 20 people with 20 different theories about why the dorm has suddenly become such a "bed of roses." But the various theories explaining the dorm's new-found popularity all return to a single fact: the decision to house women in Pennypacker has produced an environment radically different from the football-and-dirty-limericks atmosphere that used to prevail there...
John P. Reardon '60, associate dean of admissions who moonlights as a Pennypacker proctor, attributes the change in attitude to a greater degree of communication among the dorm's residents. "It's much different from last year, when some people on the floor didn't even know each other's names," he says. But at the core of this greater openness, Reardon recognizes the importance of the women's role. He notes with relief that the co-ed environment has acted as a civilizing influence, making it easier for students to meet each other while simultaneously taming the Pennypacker night...
...single central staircase--as the most important factor in getting to know each other. "People are always dropping in from room to room," says Caryl E. Yanow '80, one of the more than 40 women who have moved into Pennypacker this year. "You can't do that in a dorm that's built around entry ways," she adds...
Another explanation comes from the "party theorists," students who credit the new mood to their efforts to promote Pennypacker's reputation as a "good party dorm." "It all started when we read in The Crimson that this place is the pits--because we know it isn't," says Christina L. Brown '80. The students got together the first weekend they arrived, passed a hat, and staged the first of a long string of parties that have enticed students from the Yard to make the great trek across Prescott Street. "Brian's Song" is no longer the main attraction, and there...
Pennypacker residents still gripe occasionally about the facilities, but most seem to feel the dorm makes up in camaraderie what it lacks in luxury. "The facilities are so crummy that they must have made an extra effort to put good people here," one student theorizes. His view is accepted by those who have come to believe that Pennypacker houses the chosen people of the freshman class...