Experts to study U.'s academics

A committee of experts, led by Bryn Mawr College President Mary Patterson McPherson, will begin examining undergraduate education at the University next April. Susan Shaman, the University administrator coordinating the committee, said Friday that bringing in others to look at the University is part of a continuing process to improve undergraduate education at the University. The committee will act as consultants for the University, not evaluators. McPherson said she is not sure yet sure of the format of their final report. "This is not an evaluative process," said Shaman, assistant vice president for planning and analysis. "They're going to come and help us discuss." The committee will spend the next three semesters studying the University and will probably issue a report at the beginning of the fall 1994 semester, Shaman said. The Middle States Accreditation Review will then consider the committee's work when it evaluates the University in the spring of 1995, she added. The committee, which will consist of approximately 14 people, will have members who are experts in nursing, business, engineering and liberal arts education, Shaman said. Each school will form a committee of faculty and students to act as liasons for the committee, Associate Dean of the Engineering School John Keenan said last night. During the first semester the committee will concentrate on looking at the individual schools. Inter-school relations and the schools' position within the University will occupy the rest of the committee's time, said Mary Naylor, associate dean of the School of Nursing. Majors, cross-disciplinary studies, freshman year and the transition to college and advising are some of the general topics to be considered, Shaman said. Each school also has its own issues. Keenan said that in addition to those topics, preparing engineers to work in the next century will be discussed. The results of three committees which are finishing a year-long evaluation of the undergraduate curricullum, the school's place within the University and technology's role in education will all be used as a starting point, Keenan said. The Nursing School will discuss how to prepare students for major changes in the health care system which may increase the emphasis on nursing, Naylor said.

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