Chodorow addresses issues at open student forum

Only 20 students attended an open forum with Provost Stanley Chodorow in the rooftop lounge of High Rise East yesterday. And many of them were members of student government or Residential Advisors in the high rise. During the open forum, Chodorow reported on the progress of the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education and answered questions on a variety of issues, ranging from the Student Judicial Charter to why Logan 17 has no heat. The administration created PCUE at the very end of last semester and asked its members to form a model for the 21st Century Undergraduate Education Initiative first introduced last October. In response to a question posed by College sophomore Jamil Smith, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, Chodorow said the committee has met on an almost weekly basis since its inception and just completed the first phase of its mission. Each school's dean and student representative presented reports on their school's current status, Chodorow said. This step was completed at PCUE's last meeting. "Now, we need to create a series of goals," he said, adding that he hopes to set up focus groups of faculty and students to obtain input into this part of the process. Chodorow said he hoped PCUE would formulate tentative proposals before going to the focus groups. "It could be open-ended or it could be us presenting something and getting reaction," he said. Chodorow added, though, that he preferred the latter choice. As a result of Wednesday's University Council discussion on the proposed student judicial charter, College junior Max Jacobs questioned Chodorow on the issue last night. Chodorow said part of the problem with the charter lies in its outline format. "We didn't spell out what we had in mind but we will do that," he said. "It was a mistake to present that as an outline and we will now fill out the details." College junior Mike Nadel, a DP columnist, said he disagreed with the fundamental assumption of the charter that the ultimate system should not be adversarial. "Both sides will feel adversarial in a very serious situation," he said. "The best thing to do is accept that [a non-adversarial system] cannot be done and figure out how to promote rights for both sides." But Chodorow disagreed, saying that he believed a system could be fair and non-adversarial. "There are legal systems which are non-adversarial and no less fair to the person that is accused," he said, adding that the University's judicial system must be different than a court of law. Chodorow also said the Office of the Provost should have a role in the decision-making process because the interests of the University are involved. But he added that the participation of top administrators in the judicial process should be "very rare." A second year graduate student expressed concern regarding the University's relationship with Philadelphia in light of a rash of car accidents on Walnut Street last semester. "The relationship between the University administration and the city isn't very good, especially in regard to Walnut Street," Chodorow said. Chodorow added that the University has worked well with the city in West Philadelphia issues despite not getting "very good cooperation in regard to the Walnut Street corridor." The forum, which lasted for an hour and a half, also included discussion on issues of student apathy and the College of Arts and Sciences' General Requirement.