Increased student-faculty interaction is the key to improving undergraduate education at the University. That was the consensus among a majority of the 75 students, faculty and administrators gathered in Bennett Hall's Penniman Library last night to share their views on what may be the future of the University's undergraduate experience.
English Undergraduate Advisory Board member and College senior Tracy Layland said she is most disturbed by the barrier between faculty and students.
"The culture of education here at Penn has to change," she said. "We have to stop pointing fingers and start breaking barriers."
"If I had my way we would not need 'Take your Professor to Lunch Week' because students and faculty would be dining together on a regular basis," she added.
Student Committee on Undergraduate Education Chairperson Satya Patel said he had his own vision for the future.
"What I see needed for the 21st Century is the fostering of a community of faculty, students and administrators all here to learn for the sake of learning," the Wharton junior said.
School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Gregory Farrington discussed the importance of creating a common experience for all students--which he said is a challenge in such a large community.
But he said this could be accomplished if faculty paused to interact with students.
"When graduates come back to Penn and talk to me [about the school], virtually all of them talk about faculty that took time to listen and touch their lives," he said. "If Penn rinds a way to foster that then Penn's experience will be uncommon in the most wonderful way."
English graduate student Carolyn Jacobson said she sees more interaction between graduate and undergraduate students as important.
And Provost Stanley Chodorow said the University needs to create a community in which exchanges between faculty and students will be easy.
"What we seem to be missing are human-sized communities that allow faculty and students to interact on a common ground," he said. "Generally speaking we have not created the institutional structures necessary to give the people who want to get together and have intellectual discussions the time and place to do so."
After the speeches, the forum shifted to an interactive format in which audience members could respond to the speakers' ideas.
While many agreed with the opinions expressed, some took the opportunity to bring up other issues.
College senior Carlos Decena expressed his frustration with the tenure criteria, stating that he thinks if a professor has exemplary teaching skills, the review committee should not put as much emphasis on research.
"It seems to me that we have a lot of brilliant people at this school but that we have very few brilliant teachers," he said. "And it is awful that we have brilliant teachers denied tenure."
Chodorow responded by saying that University faculty have to be --and are-- good enough to do a superb job with both teaching and research.
"This is a research university and faculty have a major obligation to produce research," he said, adding, though, that teaching also constitutes a major consideration in the tenure review process.
"I know it's the common view that it is only the research and quality of research that counts," he said. "But it ain't true."
He added that there is a range of teaching abilities among the faculty, explaining that most professors are "good, bordering on excellent."
"Brilliant teachers are as rare as brilliant students," Chodorow said.
English Professor Gregg Camfield--who was recently denied tenure despite his immense popularity among students--agreed that scholarship should not be sacrificed for teaching.
"It's all connected," he said. "There's no way I could be a good teacher without my scholarship. If I am not an active scholar both in class and out, I am not an active teacher."
College senior Jordana Horn, former DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN executive editor and a representative on the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education, moderated the event, which was sponsored by the English UAB.