SATU program may compel students to speak up in class

Using WATU as a model, SCUE hopes to integrate the program throughout the four undergraduate schools. Students currently registered for COMM 75, "Rhetoric and Public Presentation," are getting a taste of what some student leaders hope will be a new wave of public speaking-based courses at the University. Two years ago, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education released plans for "Speaking Across the University" -- a program to bring speaking advisors into certain classes to help students with presentations and debates. This fall, with the formation of COMM 75, SATU is off to a test start. The pilot course introduces students to the theory and practice of public speaking and teaches them how to pass those skills along to their peers. SCUE hopes to choose eight of the students that complete the course to become SATU advisors for future courses involving public speaking. In organizing the program, SCUE was inspired by the Writing Across the University initiative which brings writing advisors into writing-intensive classes to help students enhance their composition skills and fulfill the writing requirement. "WATU began the writing fever at this university," said SCUE Chairperson Ari Silverman, a College senior. "We want SATU to be a catalyst for speaking at the University. "A university's role is to create leaders for the future," he added. "A very important component of that role is instilling effective rhetoric and oratory skills in all its students." The idea of rhetoric was incorporated into University President Judith Rodin's strategic plan, the Agenda for Excellence. "It's something she supports, and we support too," said Silverman. SCUE is currently soliciting professors in all four undergraduate schools to designate their classes as SATU courses next term in order to have a trial run of the program with the new speaking advisors. "First, we want to get a set program of training SATU advisors, find a large number of participating classes interested in taking advantage of advisors and build a new emphasis in this school on rhetoric skills," Silverman explained. "After that we'll see what happens next." The SATU advisor would be an added resource to an existing course, Silverman said, but there would not be a separate SATU grade for the course and there has been "no talk of a requirement just yet." SCUE member Aaron Fidler, a Wharton sophomore, said the general response to the SATU proposal has been positive. "It's important that people feel comfortable with their speaking abilities, feel comfortable speaking among their peers and people they don't know," Fidler said. "People I've talked to -- both students and faculty -- seem to be very excited about it." Fidler added that he doesn't believe a SATU requirement would be necessary to attract students to the program. "Now that people are going to be speaking through a global audience and have more people to reach, they will have to learn how to do that," he said. Todd Bonin, a College senior who is currently enrolled in COMM 75, disagrees. "For some people, they definitely need that incentive," he said. "A lot of people leave here without knowing how to speak in front of people." Bonin said he enrolled in the class as an elective because "it seemed like something totally out of the ordinary for Penn." Communications Professor Kevin Dean -- a visiting professor from West Chester University in West Chester, Pa. -- is teaching the SATU training course this semester. "Professor Dean is so funny -- he's a riot and a very good teacher," College senior Annie Fu said. She added that the speech and debate team, which she heads, tried to initiate the SATU program last year, but handed it over to SCUE because it had the resources to make the program campus-wide. The trial run of the SATU program is the culmination of SCUE's Experimental Education Project released last fall. The project was the initiative that began preceptorials last fall and led to the opening of the SCUE Lounge in the Faculty Club last week. "[Dean] has instilled this confidence in us that, by the end of the class, we'll all walk away with a skill that we wouldn't have had otherwise," Bonin said. "The course is a breath of fresh air," he added. "It's different and it's useful."

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