Budget, Ivy Council on USG agenda

Academic advising, a recent Ivy Council conference, the USG budget and upcoming events headlined last night's USG meeting.

USG academics chair Sarah Breslow '08 updated the gathering on several projects that were publicized this weekend in a school-wide email, including "Take Your Professor to Lunch Week" and efforts to reform academic advising.

This week, dining halls and eating clubs will allow students to bring their professors to lunch for free. Breslow said she hopes the initiative can spur larger reforms by improving interaction between students and professors.

"Getting written comments at midterms is an eventual goal, but for right now, forging good relationships between teachers and students early on ... is a good step," she said.

Breslow and Class of 2010 senator Ben Lund will meet this week with Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler to discuss problems with academic advising, including mismatches between freshmen and their faculty advisers, questionable selection criteria for peer advisers and the overall quality of advising.

Suggestions for improvement included hiring University staff whose jobs would be exclusively to advise students, offering advisers compensation and revamping the training process for advisers.

But USG members stressed that they are only in the beginning stages of addressing the issue. "I don't think we fully know what students' problems with academic advising are," USG president Rob Biederman '08 said. "It may be best to start ... by asking what the administration sees as the problems."

The USG also developed tentative plans to launch a Tiger Forums discussion about advising to which any student can contribute. Suggestions posted on the forum could furnish discussion material for future meetings, USG vice president Josh Weinstein '09 said.

Andrew Malcolm '09, the Ivy Council Head Delegate, will also contact delegates from other Ivy League schools to discuss their policies regarding academic advising.

He and Sunshine Yin '08, the University's liaison to the Ivy Council, gave a recap of the major issues discussed at last week's annual fall Ivy Council Conference, held at Yale. "The core of the conference was the breakout sessions we did on various aspects of policy," Malcolm said.

Those sessions addressed topics including dining issues, self-segregation and the structure of student government. The Ivy Council is also launching a new website to help each school's delegations share information more easily with their student governments. "The goal of the Ivy Council is to help student governments benefit students," Yin said.

The USG also voted to approve its budget for the semester, setting it at $155,500, an increase from last semester's budget of $144,420. USG initiatives, social expenses, student group funding, the USG Projects Board and the University Film Organization were among the programs to receive funds.

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The remainder of the meeting was devoted to plans for upcoming events.

The USG social and cultural program known as Murray-Dodge Thursdays will be relaunched this semester, beginning Nov. 15. That evening, Liberty in North Korea (LINK) will sponsor a discussion and open mic music night at Murray-Dodge.

USG social chair Christian Husby '08 said MD Thursdays aim to provide a more intellectual and cultural venue than other social options on campus. "On Saturdays, you may just hang out with your friends and come to get food," he said, "but on Thursdays ... we will have faculty, a band or a debate. It's more focused on discussions."

Husby is organizing the program along with U-Councilor Maria Salciccioli '09.