This week, members of the current College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Advisory Board will begin their annual search for new constituents, soliciting and evaluating applications from current College freshmen and sophomores.
Made up of College sophomores, juniors and seniors, the DAB "serves as a liaison between [College] Dean [Rebecca] Bushnell, her administrative staff and College students," according to a recent e-mail sent to all College freshmen and sophomores.
"It's a tremendously valuable organization for me," Bushnell said. The DAB is "a really important way for me to really get student thinking and student responses on issues of policy-making."
Bushnell explained that the DAB is "a good sounding board for me for new initiatives and policies" but added that the group has its own separate projects as well.
"We have two major initiatives right now," DAB Co-Chairman Dan Landsburg said. "We're trying to find out a little more about undergraduate research in the College and trying to expand the concept of research."
"We're trying to encourage students to go out and use Philadelphia as a resource for doing research," he added.
Landsburg said that the DAB is also currently at work with the Undergraduate Advisory Board to rebuild the Undergraduate Advisory Board Consortium, which would serve as an umbrella organization for the undergraduate advisory boards of many different majors.
The UABC has "kind of fallen apart a little bit, and now we're working to reform it," he said. "We're pretty much finished now, though, and it will be beginning to function again next semester."
Other recent DAB projects have included discussions with the head of Penn's Critical Writing Program about the current writing advising and writing seminars, student discussions with the dean and a symposium on undergraduate research.
Because of the seriousness of the DAB's duties, Landsburg explained that current board members plan to evaluate applications carefully.
"We're looking for students who have a good idea of what the DAB is all about," he said. "We're looking for students who are motivated and who want to work to improve the College education."
"We're a group that's been growing, especially under Dean Bushnell," he added. "We're a very diverse group of people with different natures and different backgrounds who are just dedicated to improving the College education."
