Interest low for new PennTalks program

Fewer students than hoped have come to focus group sessions on Penn's future. The Penn Public Talk Project kicked off the PennTalks initiative this week, bringing together small groups of undergraduates to discuss their experiences at Penn and their hopes for the University's future. But so far the effort -- which will culminate in a report to University President Judith Rodin on the various student opinions expressed -- has gotten off to a slow start, as it seems fewer students than expected are interested in talking about Penn. Associate Director of Penn Public Talks Bill Boltz said that there were originally 30 discussion sessions scheduled for the next two weeks -- but as of now, only 15 will run. He attributed the apparent lack of student interest to the fact that PennTalks was held so soon after spring break. "So much is going on," Boltz said. "People are getting back at different times. The sessions next week will be more full than this week's." At the project's inception, Boltz planned to have about 10 students per session; however, many have only three or four. But Boltz said that the smaller number of students will still result in "good and productive conversations." Boltz said PennTalks is intended to let administrators know what students think about Penn, as well as to strengthen the University community. College sophomore Ari Alexander, the Penn Public Talks Project student liaison, expressed hope that PennTalks will help to "break down the hierarchy" of the University so that administrators will be able to hear students' opinions more easily. As part of the program, Penn hired the Connecticut-based Study Circles Resource Center to train 31 student facilitators in how to get their fellow students to discuss the issues that are important to them. All the discussions are run solely by students. Participants remain enthusiastic about the effort. "It went really well," said College sophomore Jamie Beller, who attended one of last night's sessions. "It was productive. We brought up a lot of pertinent issues and we got to hear different views from different people." Facilitator Iman Martin said that she got involved in the project partly because, as a member of the United Minorities Council, she wanted to bring many different kinds of students together. "It's a chance for Penn students to come together and talk about what Penn is really about," the College freshman said. Facilitator Amy Rosen, an Engineering sophomore, stressed the importance of students feeling that they can really express themselves. "For the first time, [Penn has created] an unrestrained conversation, with no adult figure or authority figure present," Rosen said. If the PennTalks program is successful, those involved hope to expand the project to include dialogues between faculty members, graduate students and members of the University City community.