Hello! I’m Julia, and I am a student representative on the University Faculty Senate, which is comprised of faculty senators elected from each college and campus to provide legislative authority on all matters relating to the educational interests of the University. As a Student Faculty Senator, I represent you, the students of the College of the Liberal Arts.

On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, 11:00-12:00 p.m., in 502 Keller Building, Senate Officers will visit the College of the Liberal Arts, and all Liberal Arts students are invited to the meeting.  Email RSVP@la.psu.edu if you are planning to attend. 

The following delegation of students will attend the meeting to represent you:

• Julia V. Schrank, Student Faculty Senator for the College of the Liberal Arts
• Spencer Malloy, Chair of the Assembly for the University Park Undergraduate Association
• Kasey O’Keefe, President of The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council
• Matthew Jewitt, Vice President of The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council

Here are some items that we may bring to the Senate Officers’ attention:

• Technology in the classroom: Can your professor ban electronics from his or her classroom? Is that for the College to decide? Or is it flat-out not allowed?
• Online syllabi for the University: Currently, the College of Health and Human Development has old syllabi from previous semesters online and available for students’ use. We think that having these old syllabi available for all courses would be very helpful in allowing you to pick the best course schedule and course sections that you possibly can, and we would like to engage the Senate Officers regarding the feasibility of doing this across the board.
• Excused absences for job interviews: Right now, if you have a job interview during a class, it is not considered an excused absence by many of our professors. We don’t want to presume that professors don’t want you to get jobs (If anything, they want you to use what you learn to get that prime position!), but there’s a lack of guidance in this area, and we think this is important for students in the College.

If you have other concerns that you would like us to bring to the Senate Officers, or if you think that there’s something else that I should look into during my term, let me know ASAP at jvs5425@psu.edu.

Thanks for your time and have a great semester!