East Halls is where most of University Park’s freshmen live. The friendships formed during the freshman year often last throughout a student’s entire time at Penn State. Few students remain in East Halls until their senior year, but many students find the people they met that first year are some of their best collegiate friends. Because East Halls has a great amount of people who are new to University Park and are eager to make friends, this atmosphere may make the transition from high school to college a bit easier for first-year students. Many second-year students choose to move to residence areas that are more centrally located or into off-campus apartments. All freshmen are required to live on campus, with few exceptions. The walk from East Halls to the center of campus takes about 15 minutes.

To give you a better idea of what student life is like at Penn State, we are now visiting a sample residence hall room. This particular room is located in Pennypacker Hall, in East Halls. We have tried to make this room as authentic as possible, but no students actually live here. (Remember to select the QuickTime VR logo to the left to “step inside” this room and look around.)

All residence hall rooms have desks, beds, closets, and a microfridge (a combination refrigerator/freezer and microwave). Previously, students were provided with only a refrigerator/freezer. Many students, however, would bring their own microwave. When the refrigerator and microwave were both drawing electricity from the same outlet, it became an electrical problem. To solve this problem, the Housing office opted to phase out the old cube refrigerator/freezers and replace them with the “microfridge.” The way the microfridge works is, basically, when the microwave is running, the refrigerator/freezer shuts off, and this saves energy. Because the microwave only runs for short periods of time, the coldness is maintained in the fridge/freezer even when it is off.

Penn State was one of the first major universities to have these units in all of our residence hall rooms. The Microfridge Company, (later named Interion) claim Penn State is their largest customer.

(Remember to use the “Perspectives” icon to the left to get an “insider’s viewpoint” of residence hall life.)

Each student has his or her own desk with lockable drawer, closet, and dresser.

Each room also has a telephone and two telephone jacks that share the same line. Students often bring their own telephones. Each student will be provided with an ACUS account for long-distance calls. They can use calling cards instead of the ACUS service.

The plate on the wall that has the phone jacks also has two Ethernet connections for students’ computers. These jacks allow students to connect their computer to the high —speed network on campus and to access the Internet any time they want. All the students need to use this connection is an Ethernet card in their computers -- these cards are also available for rent or purchase from the Microcomputer Order Center.

Each room also has a cable jack. Cable service is provided free of charge by Penn State Housing & Food Services in every residence hall room.

There are laundry rooms in the residence halls, so students do not have to leave their building to do laundry.

There are Resident Assistants responsible for each residence hall. At least one RA is always on duty in every residence hall, 24 hours a day. At night, each residence hall locks to prevent unauthorized entry. To get into a locked residence hall, students must have their student ID cards, which are used to unlock the doors.