Dean: Advising sys. needs help

Following an external committee's "very critical" review of Penn's academic advising system this summer, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman said Friday that major changes in the way that students and their advisors interact could be implemented for next fall. At a meeting of the University Trustees' Academic Policy Committee, Beeman told the Trustees that he and other administrators are seriously considering doing away with summer course registration for incoming freshmen and lengthening New Student Orientation for freshmen and transfer students. Administrators from Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Washington universities came to Penn this summer and issued what Beeman called a "very constructive" report evaluating the University's advising system. The report, Beeman said, confirmed Penn administrators' concerns that the current system is inefficient and ineffective. "There is no other subject about which I hear both a greater quantity and intensity of complaint than advising," Beeman said. Under the current system, incoming freshmen are assigned one faculty advisor, one peer advisor, one advisor from their college house and one advisor from the College office. The review committee found that academic advising had not yet been adequately integrated into residential life and that students were often confused about which advisor they should see when. "It's become increasingly apparent to me that far, far too many undergraduates move through the University without developing the relationships they should," Beeman said. Upon choosing majors in the spring of their sophomore years, students then receive advisors within their majors -- meaning that the advising debate revolves primarily around freshmen and sophomores. "It's the undifferentiated student who has the largest problem and the one we're most concerned with," Provost Robert Barchi said at the beginning of Friday's meeting. The review committee also offered a "scathing" critique of Penn's practice of allowing freshmen to register for courses before arriving at Penn, which, Beeman said, "does not uniformly lead to initial good course choices." "The challenge for college students to do that over the summer without help is significant," Beeman said. The committee was one of several -- including Student Life and Facilities and Campus Planning -- that met on Friday morning. At Thursday's Budget and Finance Committee meeting, Health System Chief Executive Officer William Kelley announced that 1,700 Health System employees will be laid off in the next six months. The entire board passed three resolutions at Friday afternoon's Stated Meeting. The first resolution -- calling for a $12.75 million renovation of the fourth and fifth floors of the Johnson Pavilion Center for AIDS/HIV research for the School of Medicine -- sparked minor debate when it was first presented at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting the day before. Former Trustees Chairperson Alvin Shoemaker said he thought it was "sending the wrong message" for the Health System to be spending money at the same time that it was laying off employees. He voted against the resolution at the committee's meeting. But Trustees Chairperson James Riepe told the board Friday that "it was felt by the Health System and the University that these monies were important monies and should be spent even in the context of the Health System's financial situation." The Trustees also approved resolutions calling for the construction of a new classroom and amphitheater in place of the existing Steinberg Conference Center garage. Another passed resolution called for the Health System to become a jointly and severely liable co-tenant with Pennsylvania Hospital on the leases of its subsidiary, the Delancey Corporation.

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