Expensive preceptorial under fire

The art of wine tasting is something many Penn students may be eager to participate in, but when funding for such an expensive activity comes from students' own tuitions - that's where the debate kicks in.

The Wine Tasting Preceptorial has been at the heart of an ongoing debate about the annual funding it receives from the Undergraduate Assembly. The UA allocates money to various student groups, including the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education and its Preceptorial Committee.

This year, the UA cut the funding for the Preceptorials Committee to $11,500 from the $13,000 it received last year to curb what it views as excess spending on such a small number of students. The UA's funding is also matched in full by the Office of the University Provost, effectively reducing the committee's funding by $3,000 total.

But traditionally, the committee has secured funding for wine tasting in full and instead takes any cuts from other preceptorials, many of which are open to a significantly higher number of students.

Wine tasting has been considered the "flagship preceptorial" by the committee since the program was founded in 1995 through a SCUE initiative. About 1,800 students attend at least one of about 50 preceptorials offered each year.

Around 900 students sign up for the three-session wine tasting seminar, but only 20 students are accepted, based on a lottery.

"Lets consider the voices of people who are not able to participate in this," said UA member and College senior Seth Shapiro during the UA budget meeting. "This is not a right -- it's a luxury, and it goes against how funding should work."

Last year, the committee spent a total of $3,700 on the preceptorial in purchasing wines, accompanying food, wine glasses and other supplies. It has worked to tighten that amount through help from individual professors who teach the seminar but the group does not wish to charge participating students a fee.

"UA members wanted to make sure that wine tasting was limited in funding, but ironically the committee said they would not limit it since it was their flagship precept," said UA chairman and College senior Jason Karsh.

The UA does not take punitive measures against specific preceptorials, he added.

"It's very disappointing - the UA set out to create a more efficient preceptorial . but what it ends up doing is disadvantaging the rest of the preceptorials," said SCUE chair and College and Wharton junior Zachary Fuchs.

The committee views the popularity of wine tasting as a way to attract students to other preceptorials.

"We can't eliminate a program that has a 900 student demand, one which the UA members who voted against it will probably still sign up for as seniors," Fuchs said.

However, both Fuchs and Karsh said they were looking forward to closer collaboration between SCUE and the UA year-round in order to foster better understanding between the two groups.

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