Wharton deans meet with students at forum

Students met with administrators yesterday in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall for the annual Dean's Forum/Brown Bag Lunch which provides students the opportunity to discuss Wharton undergraduate concerns. Both Dean Thomas Gerrity and Vice-Dean Janice Bellace of the Wharton school were present to field questions in a casual, informal setting. The Wharton Undergraduate Dean's Advisory Board sponsored the lunch, whose purpose was to allow students and administrators to get feedback from each other, said board member and Wharton sophomore Pooja Grover. Topics of discussion included the Wharton undergraduate curriculum, the school's reputation, communication between Wharton clubs and students and undergraduate advising. Gerrity and Bellace first addressed the issue of curriculum. They said they supported the idea of incorporating the new concentration in Environmental Policy Managing. "Most of the concentrations in the Wharton school are strongly disciplined based," said Gerrity, advocating the interdisciplinary concentration which will soon come before the Curriculum Review Board. The question of how to improve the Wharton 101 course was also raised. Suggestions were made to reduce the personal time-management part of the course and emphasize hands-on experience, leadership and group management skills. "It is an area that we are deeply committed to," Gerrity said. "It is also material that is not well practiced." The administration is currently going over the two sets of data they have from course evaluation forms in order to better address student needs in this area. "Students are not really serious about the course since it is non-credit," Engineering freshman Nikhile Bhattacharya said. "We need a more structured curriculum." Another issue raised was the availability of Wharton undergraduate advisors. Evening sophomore Jack Evon said he felt that the advising office was understaffed. He suggested they relax the atmosphere and move some of the administration duties of the staff to different times, making advisors more accessible to the students. "If you have a quick question, you can't get past the receptionist," Evon said. Also discussed during the meeting were ways to improve Wharton undergraduate communication. Both the students and administrators agreed it is important to regulate the Wharton bulletin boards and increase awareness of undergraduate publications such as the Wharton Newsletter. Students and administrators also talked about the perception of Wharton as primarily a graduate school. Gerrity said the media has a fascination with the MBA degree and pays much less attention to the undergraduate program. "We want to move the undergraduate program into the forefront," Gerrity said. Student response to the meeting was very positive. "I think it was a really useful opportunity to meet the Dean and the Vice-Dean to hear what they had to say," Bhattacharya said. "I thought it went great," said Wharton freshman Scott Friedberg. "It was a lively dialogue in an open and relaxed atmosphere." "Students had an opportunity to voice their concerns about a variety of Wharton issues straight to the top of the bureaucratic pyramid," he added.