Letters to the Editor

Preceptorial facts

To the Editor:

In his recent blog entry, Stephen Morse manipulated several points of our e-mail interview and inaccurately represented preceptorials. The Preceptorials Committee would like to clarify the following points of fact:

1) Cancellations are extremely rare in the current preceptorials system. This is a result of the committee's efforts to increase student awareness of the program and modifications to the registration system, which allow students to enroll in more than one preceptorial.

2) Preceptorials registration cannot work just like that of classes. They are non-credit seminars and as a result some students find it easy to renege on their commitments. A cap is not set so that we can have as long a waitlist as possible. This gives every student who registers a chance to attend and ensures that the preceptorial is fully-enrolled.

3) We are developing a registration system for the fall that will allow students to rank their preferences and will e-mail enrolled or waitlist status more quickly.

4) The Preceptorials Committee uses its annual budget for over 30 preceptorials each semester. These topics are designed to reflect the interests of the entire undergraduate student body, as well as foster student-faculty interaction. As a result, the committee does limit the number of students allowed to enroll in each preceptorial, including wine tasting.

Preceptorials are taught by professors from all four undergraduate schools and offer students the unparalleled opportunity to pursue academic interests outside of a graded setting. For more information, please visit our newly redesigned website at http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~precepts/.

Mandeep Kalra & Isabelle Kenyon The authors are the Chairman and Outreach Coordinator of the Preceptorials Committee, respectively

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