Advisory board wants hub for College

The Aliya SternsteinThe Aliya SternsteinThe Daily Pennsylvanian The group's most dramatic suggestion is to establish a central location for College students, similar to the Wharton School's Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, according to DAB Co-Chairperson and College junior Jennifer Fink. Other suggestions from the committee -- composed of 12 students who work closely with Beeman -- include placing computer kiosks in Logan Hall, developing a mail folder drop-off system similar to that in Wharton and further developing the Fox Leadership Program. Group members cited the ground floor of Logan Hall -- home of the College Office -- as an attractive location for several of its proposals. "We could make better use of that space," Fink noted, adding, however, that the College does not control the site and would need outside approval. Members proposed central mail folders where both professors and students could communicate without paying for stamps or walking to residences. Suggestions also included photocopy machines and computers for checking e-mail. "College students don't have a building to call their own," said four-year DAB member and College senior Michele Sacks. But Sacks and other DAB members added that the College student population -- which is more than three times as large as Wharton's -- may be too large for a mail folder operation. The DAB also discussed acting as a student sounding board for speaker selection in the Fox Leadership Program, which kicked off recently with the Lessons in Leadership alumni speaker series. Another top priority, according to DAB Co-Chairperson and College senior Matan Ben-Aviv, is increased faculty-student interaction through programs such as the "Take Your Professor to Lunch" initiative. Impressed with this year's DAB, Beeman said he was "bombarded" with initiatives and is currently looking into several of them. He said he is in talks with University officials about placing computer kiosks in the "very barren" basement of Logan Hall, adding that the Perelman Quadrangle -- with the newly opened 24-hour Silfen Study Center in Williams Hall -- should help make the ground floor a "more inviting space." Beeman was more hesitant about the possibility of a mail folder system, saying he had not seen Steinberg Dietrich's drop-off station and will talk with Wharton administrators. "I'm exploring the feasibility of it," Beeman noted. He added that there "may be some better way than a bulky mail room" to improve communication, but said he is keeping an open mind. The faculty lunch program will be improved right away, Beeman said, adding that he wants to see faculty advisors eating with their freshman advisees as part of an effort to improve College advising. At last Friday's Trustees meeting, Beeman said that major changes in student and advisor interaction will start next fall, following an external committee's critical review of Penn's academic advising system this summer. DAB members said they will be working with Beeman to revamp College advising and plan for the proposed pilot College curriculum. On Thursday, DAB will hold this year's first Logan Lounge, a monthly informal gathering of students and faculty. Political Science Professor Jack Nagel will moderate a discussion on the mayoral race.