Resolving Penn's little problems

For University Ombudsman David Pope, settling disputes among faculty members and teaching students how to sample wine is all just in a semester's work.

While the idea of an ombudsman may be foreign to many students, it is known among those "who are a little older," Pope said.

As Penn's chief mediator, Pope informally resolves conflicts between University staff members. He is also a professor of Materials Science.

As ombudsman, he only handles the most serious faculty disputes -- his office staff takes care of student problems.

"It's people with broad university experience, who have a certain seniority and certain understanding of the institution," Pope said of his appointment to the position in 2003.

As ombudsman, Pope gets to do a lot of listening.

"I try to resolve conflict by just talking to the individuals involved," Pope said. "I don't go to the president; I don't go to the provost. I deal with the problem by dealing with the source."

"I report to no one other than God," Pope added jokingly.

He says he did not apply for the job, but rather that the opportunity came along because of his experience at Penn.

"They are looking for people of a certain vintage," Pope said.

And he knows all about vintages. Pope teaches one of the most popular preceptorials on campus -- the wine-tasting seminar -- which allows of-age students to sample both fine and bargain wine.

The preceptorial -- a brief class on a specific topic -- emerged because his students knew he loved wine tasting.

"Somebody had this bright idea -- they wanted to have a wine preceptorial -- and people know that my wife and I spend inordinate amounts of money on wine," Pope said.

While the preceptorial is regularly one of the hardest to get into, Pope takes the course seriously and considers a range of wines.

"The first [class] we do white wines, mostly not French," he said. "The next [class], we do red wines, mostly not French. And the third one we do French wines."

In capacity as a professor, Pope helped to revamp the introductory engineering course in the fall of 2003. Thus far, it has drawn over 140 students.

"When I took laboratories as an undergrad, I hated them because they were so 'sweaty palms' and you ask questions and people will tell you you're stupid or you didn't study the lab materials," said Pope. "I vowed I would never teach a course like that."

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