THE UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE: Science and technology pilot mirrors existing program

When English Professor Robert Lucid, who chairs the collegiate planning board, announced the development of four collegiate planning pilot programs, he said they would be unlike anything the University had ever seen. But one of the pilots is simply a continuation of a program currently in operation. The program oriented toward science and technology is little more than an extension of the Science and Technology Wing based in King's Court/English House, according to the program's committee chairperson, Jorge Santiago-Aviles, an electrical engineering professor. For five years, students have had the option of living in an environment focused on science and technology -- either as freshmen in King's Court/English House or as upperclassmen clustered together in the high rises. Next year that program, known as Science and Technology Wing, will serve as one of the four pilot programs for the University's collegiate planning project. It will not differ in any way from the wing's current format. "I am just continuing the normal enhancing of STWing," said Santiago-Aviles. The wing currently offers programs, dinner discussions and events involving the Internet, various sciences and other technology-related issues. And in its current format, the program has been popular among students. After starting with 12 students five years ago, the wing has grown to include 150 undergraduates. When the pilot programs were first announced in September, Lucid said the science and technology program would reach out to students living off campus as well. "It is the program that will show us if we can link up what is now a broken link," he said at the time. But Santiago-Aviles said he is not planning to target that audience next year. "Right now, we're trying to have a self-assessment of STWing," he said. "We're trying to understand what motivates [students] to invest so much energy and so much of their time in this sort of endeavor." To do that, members of the wing developed statements on the program's philosophy, history and ambitions for administrators. Santiago-Aviles added that the program could only be expanded to an extent, since the students involved wanted to keep a "sense of belonging and intimacy" within the group. Engineering and Wharton senior Eric Fitzpatrick, who has been part of the program since his freshman year, said he saw a problem with involving many off-campus students in the program. "So far, the off-campus thing has been sketchy," he said. "We've tried, but people who live off campus come on for the day and then go back off. And a lot aren't on meal plan and we eat together." The only real change that could occur in the wing would affect the residential location of its upperclass program. Next year, upperclassmen involved in the program may live in the graduate towers in order to be in close proximity to the freshmen. The graduate towers were also considered as a possible site for the Civic College House, a community service-related pilot program. But students on the Civic College House committee vetoed the idea because they did not want undergraduates living in a building of graduate students. Santiago-Aviles said he did not think that would be a problem for his program. "As long as they preserve their sense of unity and identity, I don't think it would be a great disturbance," he said. "But it's still being evaluated." Fitzpatrick brought up several problems with the graduate towers, including the fact that they are not currently wired for ResNet. University administrators have told Science and Technology Wing members that the graduate towers are scheduled to be wired over the summer, Fitzpatrick said. But College junior Kushol Gupta, a member of the wing, said he did not envision upperclassmen from the wing moving into the graduate towers next year. Gupta said that besides ResNet, price and atmosphere are issues that may deter the Science and Technology Wing from moving into the graduate towers. "STWing has a very social atmosphere and grad towers [have] a reputation for being anti-undergraduate and isolated," Gupta said. He added that rent in the graduate towers is more expensive than in the high rises. The wing's student-run organizational council, called the Continuum, will work with Santiago-Aviles and Lucid on future Science and Technology Wing pilot program plans.

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