Barchi warms up to students

With a crackling fire in the background and a cup of hot chocolate in his hand, Provost Robert Barchi spoke to about thirty students in Houston Hall last night about Penn1s academic mission. The Undergraduate Assembly selected 15 students through an application process to participate in the first session of the ongoing program, "Fireside Chats with Provost Barchi." The UA, along with the Vice Provost for University Life and the Provost's Office, is sponsoring this ongoing program, which will hold a chat with the provost on the first Tuesday of every month. The panel of students each submitted a question for the provost to answer. An open invitation was extended to any other members of the student body who wanted to attend. "Understand that I don't want to just give you my impressions or my thoughts," Barchi said, expressing his hope for a casual atmosphere, encouraging students to move the sofas closer to his armchair by the fireplace. "I really would like this to be a dialogue, because I'm as interested in hearing what you think about some these questions," he said. Students asked a variety of questions. Lauren Weinstein, a College senior, asked about the distance she sees between Penn professors and students. In answering Weinstein's question, Barchi recalled his own experiences trying to minimize the distance between himself and students. "The first year I was provost, I think we spent a lot of time going around meeting with small groups... and then the DP had a survey at the end of the year and they asked how many people know who the provost is, and I don't know, it was like 3 percent or something like that... It was distressingly small and we realized that, boy, we've got an uphill battle here," Barchi said. In fact, some of the students in attendance said that they turned out for the chat because they had never met the provost before. "I was interested in seeing what he was actually like as a person rather than an official University figure," College senior Larissa Kopytoff said. Another issue arose when College sophomore Jordan Rosenberg described his frustration in creating an individualized major, and asked why there is what he sees as a "really high bar [to overcome] in order to create that major." Barchi answered from what he said was the faculty's point of view. "They feel that there are certain objectives that they want to make sure are included in any major... By the same token, they don't want to discourage someone who doesn't fit into one of the majors that exists," Barchi said. While most of the questions pertained to academics, not all did. UA member Eric Chen, an Engineering junior, asked about Penn's role in instilling a sense of civic responsibility in students through community involvement. Barchi answered Chen's question by referring both to the academically based community service courses already in place at Penn and Civic House, a community service hub. Barchi also pointed to the walking tours of West Philadelphia during this year's New Student Orientation, which were designed to "show [new students] what's out there, right from the beginning." Many participants said they were satisfied with the chat. "I'm just glad to see the interest in hearing student views. Hopefully, [Barchi will] follow up on the ideas he heard," College senior Adam Magnus said. But, in contrast, College junior Brian Cope was critical of the event. "I didn't feel like the talk was particularly worthwhile, simply because it was too broad, and any of the questions could just be generalized," Cope said. "With the topic being so general, the questions are also general, and [Barchi] can skirt the question by giving a broad answer and not mentioning any specifics." One student was somewhat critical of the lack of diversity at the event, but praised it overall. "I thought the openness of the provost was great to see... [but] diversity is key in helping to promote a wide range of ideas," said College junior Angela Holland.