Rodin to hold 'town meetings'

University President Judith Rodin announced last week that she plans to hold "town meetings" next semester to hear the University community's response to her plans for undergraduate education. "The provost and I would like to participate in them," Rodin said. "Everyone who is interested will be able to air their views." Rodin said she hopes the town meetings will be sponsored by the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education. Rodin said she does not know now whether the meetings will be televised. Last semester, Interim President Claire Fagin and Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson hosted televised town meetings on campus. Rodin and Provost Stanley Chodorow announced their plans for the 21st Century Undergraduate Education last month. It will involve connections between academics and the residences, interdisciplinary activities and classes, and making the University "institutionally distinctive." They said they want to implement the new plans by the fall of 1997. Under the timetable, the first class to be affected will be the Class of 2001. The Nominations and Elections Committee has begun the process of finding eight students -- two from each undergraduate school -- to complete the committee on the undergraduate education initiative. The Provost's Committee on Undergraduate Education will form the bulk of the undergraduate education committee. Four of the eight students will be appointed to that committee, and the other four will act as backups and serve on subcommittees. Applications for the student positions are due Nov. 29. Interviews will be held that weekend and the final list of names will be given to Chodorow on Dec. 5, Nominations and Elections Committee Chairperson Rick Gresh said. Gresh added that the committee is an important one, considering the issues it will discuss. "This is one of the more important committees," Gresh said last night. "The reason we're here is undergraduate education [so] the whole concept of changing it and making it more cohesive is something everybody here cares about." Gresh added that more students picked up applications than he anticipated. "A lot of applications have been picked up, and I am surprised," he said. Rodin said the committee will begin work immediately after being formed. "We expect that the council will have at least three meetings in December," Rodin said last week, noting that former plans and recommendations are also being reviewed. "We're going to articulate a systematic range of options," Rodin added. Rodin also noted that she hopes to bring in a new staff director to specifically work on the initiative in the near future.