U. Council meets for first time this spring

After controversy surrounding two canceled meetings, the University Council met yesterday for the first time this semester.

The University Council, which consists of 94 members representing administration, faculty, staff and students, had not met since December 1 prior to yesterday's meeting. They are supposed to meet monthly.

Last month, organizers cited student apathy and a lack of agenda items as the main reasons for the cancellations.

The possibility of creating a United States Cultural Analysis Requirement was the main topic of discussion at this month's meetings, with the fiscal year 2005 budget and college house system also discussed briefly.

No topics were brought forward for discussion by the members or outside attendees during the open forum section of the meeting.

Talk of the United States Cultural Analysis Requirement, which would encourage students to consider different U.S. minority perspectives in their education, sparked some differing opinions.

"It's one thing to be exposed to a different culture," former Latino Coalition Spokesperson and College senior Jesse Salazar said. "It's a totally different thing to understand what that exposure means and how we change because of it."

Interim Provost Peter Conn added that the additional emphasis on culturally-based courses would "make a statement that Penn would like to innovate."

However, the consensus among School of Arts and Sciences faculty has been support for a reduction of the number of requirements rather than the addition of new ones, College Assistant Dean and Associate Director for Academic Affairs Eric Schneider said.

Schneider suggested that incentives for cultural analysis courses would be more effective than requirements.

One alternative suggested by University Council members was to specify such courses on student transcripts.

The creation of a Web page listing a collection of courses that fit under the cultural analysis category and instituting preceptorial-like programs were also suggested.

Developing funds or better promoting existing courses that address cultural and diversity issues may also achieve the same goal without forcing students to take additional courses.

The University Council does not have legislative power to make this change, but student advocates of the requirement plan to continue to meet with deans and faculty to discuss the idea.

USCAR, which was initially proposed by the group Student Movement for Change, has been in the works for two years.

University Council members also discussed the possibility of a community-service requirement.

University President Amy Gutmann argued that students perform community service because it is "morally admirable" and because they want to volunteer, not because they are required to.

"I can remember how much I resented requirements," Gutmann said.

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