On the 50th anniversary of it college system, Yale is not resting on its residential laurels. A report released this year by their faculty council addresses the issue of improving residential college life. The report recommends an increase in the number of formal courses offered at the colleges, says Frank W.K. Kirk, master of Trumball College. Currently each college offers about six courses a year. "Teaching on the college level is a nice way to integrate the social and academic functions of the college, it also lends a greater sense of identify to each of the colleges," Kirk says, adding that the smaller college courses made it easier to teach innovative subject matters which larger courses often do not address.

Penn: Moving Slowly

With the same philosophy in mind, the University of Pennsylvania has rearranged some of its residential space to resemble Harvard's.

Ten years ago the university turned some living quarters into "houses," each with its own master and academic-related programs. The move came in response to widespread demands for "alternative life styles with more contact between the faculty and the students," says Peyton Randolph Helm, Penn's former coordinator of college house programs.

"The house system is relatively new for us and the issue now is to expand the same kinds of programs begun in the houses to other dorms," says Patricia B. Helm. Penn's college house coordinator. The university is currently in the process of renovating a group of dorms by dividing them into smaller units with common rooms, libraries and apartments for faculty and administrative staff.

Financial and geographical limitations, however, pose problems for Penn. "We have a smaller endowment than Harvard and the house system is only one in a series of living options," Helm says, adding that students may also opt to live in a "high-rise or a regular dorm."

In addition to increasing the scope of its residential house program, Penn is also in the second year of a college house seminar program in which a guest from outside the university becomes part of the house community for a week. Some recent guests include, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and iconoclastic novelist Norman Mailer '43 are two luminaries who recently visited.

Explaining the trend to improve residential life. Helm says, "For a while students saw the dorms as a place to retreat from academics at the end of the day. It's the job of a first-rate academic institution to make sure that education doesn't stop in the classrooms."

Dartmouth: Clusters vs. Frats

At Dartmouth, the move to improve residential life has two angles. An office of Residential Life established last August, oversees the institution of "clusters"--a series of dorms close enough together to form a neighborhood, each one with its own resident faculty members serving as student advisors. The school is also renovating the clusters to establish common rooms as well as recreational and library space, says Dean of Residential Life J. Christia Lesher. Officials have also imposed a set of "minimum standards" on the 27 fraternities and sororities, some of which have been marked by incidents of disorderly social behavior, officials say.

"The purpose of the institution is to educate, Everything that is not part of the classroom should be in support of the classroom," says Lesher in explaining the philosophy behind the renovations.

Some colleges have taken a more radical approach to the fraternity issue by abolishing them all together. In February, the trustees of Amherst College voted to shut down the eight Greek organizations, saying that they no longer contributed to the campus's academic or social life. "The fraternities had become quite independent from the academic life of the college. There was a genuine conviction that they were not living up to the college's standards," says Terry Y. Allen, a spokesman.

In an effort to promote a better sense of community, the college has also required that all students move back on campus. While long term plans for a residential system have not been made, the administration has looked at the possibility of a house system, Allen says.

While a majority of Ivy League schools are working to strengthen the connection between the faculty and the students, some administrators fear "too much" support. At Brown University, for example, administrators seek to promote a high degree of independence in student residential life.

"We don't ever pretend to try to equal the faculty involvement with students that there is at Harvard," says Arthur J. Gallagher director of residential life. "There is a point to stop trying to bridge the gap between students and faculty. It's important for students to be able to let their hair down and have fun."