Admin. considers new virtual college program

The administration gradually moved forward this year to create a plan for residential colleges, a system that will eventually incorporate academics and other aspects of student life into a residential environment. As a part of the University's 21st Century Project on the Undergraduate Experience, these virtual colleges will eventually link on-campus and off-campus residents through student-oriented programs. University President Judith Rodin announced in 1994 that his collegiate plan will be in place in the fall of 1997. But since then, outgoing Collegiate Planning board Chairperson and English professor Bob Lucid said he does not know exactly when the colleges will be created. As preliminary models for this college system, four new experimental academically programs were scheduled to be available to students this fall. According to Provost Stanley Chodorow, the pilots are specialized programs designed to test the kinds of features that collegiate communities would support in the future. But this spring, it was announced that two of the four programs will not be in operation in the fall due to low student enrollment, according to Academic Programs in Residence Director Christopher Dennis. Officials expected the Center for Advanced Undergraduate Study and Exploration, a program designed specifically for underclassmen interested in various types of research, and Civic House, a community-service oriented program, to enroll about 30 to 40 students each, Dennis said. But since CAUSE and Civic House received barely more than 10 applications each, he said it would be impossible to begin the pilots this fall. "I'm a bit disappointed," Dennis said in April. "The planning process was difficult and there was a lot to arrange." Program organizers agreed that information was not distributed to students early enough for them to decide to participate. Lucid explained that plans for the programs developed just last fall. "Then we turned to the students in the second semester and said 'What about it?'" he explained. Nine of the students who signed up for CAUSE formed a new spin-off program that has now been coined "EFFECT." The program will be housed in Van Pelt College House instead of CAUSE's original home in the Quadrangle.