SCUE will offer seven more preceptorials

The pilot program will continue for its second semester in the spring. Next semester, some students will attend class at the Morris Arboretum, take behind-the-scenes tours of Philadelphia rare book collections or study skeletons at the University Museum. The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education last week announced the continuation of its pilot preceptorial program, with seven more seminars scheduled for next spring. Preceptorials are small seminars that meet for a quarter of the semester. Students do not receive credit or a grade for the class. Students who participated in this semester's six preceptorials are now filling out surveys to improve future programs, according to SCUE Chairperson and Wharton senior Ben Nelson. "A couple could have been better, but overall the response has been positive," he said. "The point of a pilot is to see what works and what doesn't." The preceptorials for next semester cover different topics than those offered this fall, and some of them will involve the professional schools. SCUE members developed ideas for the courses and then approached professors they deemed appropriate to teach them, Nelson said. Biology Professor Ann Rhoads, who will teach a preceptorial at the University's Morris Arboretum entitled "Why Study Plants?", said she hopes the class will give students the chance to become familiar with the arboretum, a relatively unknown resource. Students in Anthropology Professor Janet Monge's preceptorial "What is a Museum and Museum Work Really Like?" will meet in the University Museum. "I'm hoping to get the students involved in research," she said. "This will give them hands-on experience working with skeletal materials." History Professor Michael Ryan will teach a preceptorial called "Visiting the Past," and said he plans to show his class Philadelphia's rare book and manuscript collections. "I was impressed with the idea of doing something above and beyond ordinary classroom work," he said. Telecommunications Professor David Farber will lead a preceptorial called "Clash of Cultures: Cyber vs. Pop." He said the seminar will allow him to deal with students from different disciplines, while involving them in more discussion than usual in the Engineering courses he teaches. Bioethics Professor Arthur Caplan, who will teach a seminar entitled "Ethical Issues at the Frontiers of Technology," said he wanted a chance to interact with undergraduates --Ewho he does not usually teach. The new schedule aims to correct some flaws in this semester's courses, which drew a mixed review. Nelson said some student feedback suggested that a few professors had difficulty moving away from their typical lecture style toward guided discussion. College junior Courtney Woolridge said she wished there had been more discussion in her preceptorial, on the role of the media in the recent presidential campaign with Political Science Professor Henry Teune. "It was a good way to hear his impressions of the campaign, but there was not as much interaction as I thought there would be," she said. But College sophomore Aaron Levy, who took a seminar on American poetry with English Professor Al Filreis, called the experience "excellent."