Fagin talks with students about education

Interim President Claire Fagin went to Ashurst Lounge last night expecting to hear student reaction to the preliminary report of the Commission on Strengthening the Community. Instead, she was treated to an earful of complaints about the quality of undergraduate education. Fagin began the Quadrangle discussion, which was hosted by Community House Faculty Master Peter Conn and his wife Terry, by asking the approximately 30 students assembled about the Commission report's recommendation to assign freshman housing. But the controversial topics of diversity and residential living quickly took a backseat to concerns about faculty-student interaction and the quality of the undergraduate experience. Students complaints ranged from professors who could not teach to advisors who are inaccessible to teaching assistants who can not speak English. And while many of the recommendations in the Commission's report are designed to improve the quality of undergraduate education, Fagin did not directly tie her responses into the report. Fagin said the student's expressed a "depressing" array of complaints about teaching at the University, adding that this dialogue is important. "I think that this sort of discussion is very healthy," Fagin said after the meeting. Fagin's meeting last night in Ashurst was the fourth or fifth meeting she has had with students in residences since assuming the interim presidency. While she said she generally learns a lot in her meetings with students, she said last night's meeting was the first to deal directly with the issue of undergraduate education. Also discussed at the meeting was the Commission's recommendation that fraternity and sorority rush be delayed until first semester sophomore year. Conn, an English professor, announced at the end of the meeting that this will be his last semester as faculty master, a position he has held for the last seven years.