Even though students can't take the courses for credit, a spot in a Preceptorial has never been more highly sought.
As a result, the Preceptorial Committee has had to make several changes to accommodate a larger budget and a vast increase in the number of applications.
According to committee chairman and College senior Danny Fein, Preceptorial registration has been “growing at an incredible rate.” Last fall approximately 2,100 registration requests were made. In the spring, over 7,000 requests were made.
The committee offered 18 of the mini-courses last fall and 37 last spring, and 48 Preceptorials this fall will be offered to accommodate as many applicants as possible.
The 48 offerings were made possible by another change to the committee. Beginning this year, all members will organize two Preceptorials, which will not require much additional work on the part of members, according to Fein, but will provide more course options for students.
Also new this year is a faculty advisory board, which will help improve communications between the committee and the faculty who run the Preceptorials.
Four faculty members, one from each undergraduate school, will sit on the board.
“I’m honored to be on it,” said Stella Volpe, the board’s representative from the School of Nursing. “It’s a more team-like approach to hopefully allow even better Preceptorials to happen on our campus.”
The committee also restructured itself into six teams so as to better manage their budget, which increased in the spring to $13,000 a semester.
Each team is headed by a member of the Preceptorial Steering Committee. The teams will meet on their own in addition to attending the monthly general body meetings. The budget will be divided between the teams, which will make it easier to manage, Fein said.
A new position, the member coordinator, was added to the steering committee. The member coordinator will teach new committee members how to organize Preceptorials.
For the first time, this fall’s wine-tasting Preceptorial will be outsourced to a wine school. The committee is still looking into possible vendors.
Fein expressed hopes that this change will help the seniors-only course accommodate more students. In the spring, 869 applicants applied for 20 spots — an acceptance rate of just 2.3 percent.
To help cut back on spending, the committee bought its own wine glasses last spring, eliminating the need to rent them this fall. This will allow the committee to use all of its $1,800 on the wine tasting.
The committee also made the application process simpler for registration, which ends today and can be accessed through Penn InTouch.
The application deadline to join the Preceptorials Committee is also today.
