The Undergraduate Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Sunday night urging the University to implement an opt-in e-mail and SMS notification for grade postings on Penn InTouch.
Engineering junior Matt Sternberg explained that e-mails for new grades have been requested by students in the past, and students are already e-mailed when an existing grade changes on Penn InTouch. Additionally, the notification system would bring down server traffic because students wouldn’t be checking the site to see if grades were posted, he said.
The Student Technology Advisory Board brought the idea to the Provost’s Office last year but was met with resistance because they had yet to rally student support for the idea, Sternberg said.
The UA hopes to see the system implemented in time for this semester’s grade postings.
Other items of discussion included improving the experience of exchange students at Penn and creating an Admissions Dean’s Advisory Board.
Exchange students are “underrepresented and unvoiced,” said College and Wharton senior Albert Pak , pointing to low priority in housing and difficulty getting involved in activities on campus. Because most are only here for a semester, their concerns go unaddressed because they don’t find the same outlets as regular Penn students do to voice these concerns, he said.
About 150 exchange students come to Penn each fall, and an additional 60 come each spring.
The body talked about expanding the Study Abroad Office’s Penn International Partners program, taking a closer look at how exchange students are included in New Student Orientation, re-evaluating the deadlines and priorities for on-campus housing and developing a database of off-campus housing to pair incoming exchange students with outgoing Penn students studying abroad.
ADAB would allow students to meet with Dean of Admissions Eric Furda and his staff a few times a semester to give their insight as students on how to improve the admissions yield and outreach to prospective students, College sophomore Alex Amaniel said.
The UA hopes to see ADAB hold its first meeting by the end of the semester.
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