Engineering sophomore Gabe Kopin was elected chairman of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education last night.
With the upcoming release of SCUE's latest White Paper -- a critique of the undergraduate curriculum that the body puts out every five years -- Kopin is gearing up for a year of debate about changes to undergraduate education at Penn.
He sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss the new College curriculum for the Class of 2010, interdisciplinary study and how he hopes to make those big lecture classes a little more accessible.
Daily Pennsylvanian: Tell me about your experience thus far with SCUE.
Gabe Kopin: I'm sort of investigating the quality of recitations, which has been a pertinent issue at the University, looking at the introductory teachers and the introductory levels. [I've been looking at] getting technology into the classroom and the structure of the freshman curriculum in terms of how underclassmen adjust to their time at a large university.
DP:What are you most proud of about your work on the White Paper?
GK: One of this University's most significant assets is that we have four very good undergraduate schools. It's the synthesis [of those schools] which many of the students are interested in enhancing on campus. ... We do a lot of our own internal idea generation [with the White Paper], thinking about the best ways to enhance a liberal education and combine [that] with many of the practical aspects that Penn loves.
DP: What do you see as SCUE's role in the debate over the cultural analysis requirement for the Class of 2010's new curriculum? Now that the School of Arts and Sciences Faculty Senate has agreed to reconsider a requirement that all students study U.S.-based minority culture, will SCUE weigh in again?
GK: SCUE's already put in its input. [College] Dean [Dennis] DeTurck already knows how we feel about it. It looks like, for better or worse, the current status of the new curriculum is going to go through as planned with few setbacks [to the global cultural analysis requirement]. ... We spent a lot of time last year working on the details of the new curriculum and, to be honest, it was a very mixed debate [over whether new freshmen should study both international and domestic minority culture]. ... It's really up to the faculty who have to teach those possible courses.
DP: What do you want students to remember when they look back on your tenure as SCUE chairman?
GK: We can't be afraid to take risks. ... Another thing I think is heavily important is the upcoming eastward expansion project [when the University acquires 24 acres of land from the U.S. Postal Service in 2007]. That will redefine the next generation of Penn graduates' experiences. ... It could be new college houses, new dining halls or even sports fields -- we have to know what's going on there. ... SCUE's definitely going to be looking into that very heavily.
