Last night, a group of students gathered to discuss and debate issues with Provost Robert Barchi as part of his Fireside Chats series. This time, however, a few things were different.
Instead of its usual location next to the fireplace in Houston Hall, this month's meeting was held at the Graduate Student Center on Locust Walk. And the discussion was specifically aimed at a new audience -- graduate and professional students.
However, despite recent controversy surrounding the possibility of graduate student unionization at Penn -- a case is currently being argued downtown before of the National Labor Relations Board -- the issue did not surface during yesterday's chat.
Students instead questioned Barchi on his experience in academia and the challenges of pursuing an academic career.
And while the audience and location of yesterday's discussion may have been different from previous chats, some things remained familiar. Like several previous Fireside Chats, yesterday's discussion drew a relatively small crowd of about 20 students.
However, members of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, which sponsored the event, said the small turnout was optimal.
"The idea for this type of chat is not to get 100 people, but to get an interested group of 15 or 20 people who want to have an honest conversation for a while," GAPSA Chairman Christopher Leahy said. "From what I saw, we had students from all different schools and all different programs... I think it went great."
The evening's event was titled "Is there Life After Graduate School?", but Barchi began by opening the discussion up to questions on any topic the students wanted to discuss.
During the hour-long gathering, students brought up topics ranging from student visas to grade inflation.
The Provost encouraged teaching assistants to stick to their guns when grading papers despite the pressures of student evaluations.
Barchi also looked to students for their responses, asking them how they felt about their career prospects after graduation.
One student brought up the occurrence of many Ph.D. students choosing to pursue non-academic careers -- particularly with regard to females students.
"I don't think it's a question of a negative bias on the hiring side," Barchi said, noting the University's efforts to recruit female faculty members. But he conceded that for women trying to juggle family and career, "It's a tough choice."
When asked about his switch from working in research to becoming an academic administrator, Barchi explained that though his lab work was exciting, it lacked student interaction.
"There was a time in the middle of my career which I'll say, not modestly, we were at the absolute cutting edge of the world," Barchi said.
But the Provost explained that his current administrative position allows him to give students the same research opportunities he once enjoyed.
"And that's a tremendous ego satisfaction, too," he said.
When asked about the possibility of leaving his position to become president of another University, Barchi responded,ÿ"I never thought I would be interested in being a provost... This to me has been totally novel, and I'm having a great time... when I look at what President Rodin does with a lot of her days, I think I'm having a lot more fun."
One of the most discussed subjects was the idea of bringing graduate students together from different programs through cross-disciplinary studies.
"It's always a struggle to keep yourself from getting too narrow, especially when you are working on your Ph.D.," Barchi said.
However, Barchi said he hopes the Graduate Student Center, which opened last October, will help create a central location for increased interaction to take place.
And students said they were excited to invite one of the center's proponents back to speak.
"The Provost is one of the people who made this Center possible so it seems like a perfect idea to invite him back as a guest," Leahy said.
