Provost appoints advisory board for 21st Century plan

Fifteen undergraduates will advise the administration on its 21st Century Project for undergraduate education as part of a newly formed Undergraduate Advisory Board. The UAB will gather student opinions on proposed programs within the plan, said Provost Stanley Chodorow, who oversees the entire 21st Century Project. "The success of the 21st Century Project relies on student involvement," Chodorow said. The project, developed in 1994, is geared toward revamping the undergraduate experience at the University and focuses on research opportunities, advising and residential programs. The UAB includes students from all four undergraduate schools, the Undergraduate Assembly, the Nominations and Elections Committee and the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education. The students were nominated by their peers and then chosen by the provost's office. "Without students, I don't think [administrators would] get enough perspective on what student life should be like," said College sophomore David Futer, who will serve on the UAB. Members of the project's UAB hope to hold their first meeting before Thanksgiving, but schedule conflicts may prevent the group from convening until December. Since Chodorow's UAB hasn't met yet, several members said they were unclear about the board's focus. "There's a lot of work just defining who we are," said UA Chairperson and College junior Tal Golomb, a member of the UAB. Though no official decision has been made as to how long the board will serve, College sophomore Hillary Aisenstein said the board should function throughout planning and implementation of the 21st Century Project. "Whenever the University takes on these big projects, there should be some constant deliberation to see if we are going in the right direction and if things have changed," said Aisenstein, a UAB member who sits on the UA also. The project's UAB will work with the Council of Undergraduate Deans -- the academic plan's oversight committee. Many members have already formulated ideas about which issues should draw most of the UAB's efforts. Golomb said he wants to look at collegiate planning --Ethe attempt to bring academics into the residences -- in further detail. "Hopefully, we'll be able to bring a kind of perspective to the planning," he added. Aisenstein said the UAB will take the Biddison Hier report on facilities and residences into consideration when evaluating future residential programs. "If you want to have a successful academic program in residences, you have to make sure the buildings are built to facilitate that," she said. The UAB will also tackle the student-faculty relationship. "We're going to be working more towards increasing faculty and student interaction," said Engineering sophomore Margaret Jones, a UAB member.

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