Student Committee on Undergraduate Education Records UPS 58

Summary Information

Prepared by

Theresa R. Snyder and James Curtiss Ayers

Preparation date

September 1994

Date [bulk]

Bulk, 1965-1994

Date [inclusive]

1965-1994

Extent

4.0 Cubic feet

PROVENANCE

The Records for the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE) were transferred to the University Archives and Records Center on May 16, 1994.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Founded in 1965, at a time when students had little control over their own education, The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education is the oldest existing branch of student government at the University of Pennsylvania. SCUE is an autonomous and apolitical organization whose suggestions and proposals over the past three decades have initiated some of the most influential projects in Penn’s history. These include course and professor evaluations, coeducation of the College of Arts and Sciences, Freshman Seminar Programs, Fall Break, Pass/Fail grading, Individualized Majors, Community Living Programs, and the recent Undergraduate Advisory Boards in undergraduate departments.

SCUE takes as its purview any issue that affects undergraduate education or the intellectual atmosphere at Penn. The Committee works to enhance and expand the curriculum opportunities, advising, and the overall quality of the undergraduate academic experience. This is done by serving as advisors to the administration, and as advocates for the student voice. All efforts are predicated on the tenet that undergraduates must have a say in the academic programs of which they are most integrally a part.

In addition to addressing specific issues, SCUE sponsors Take a Professor to Lunch Week, the Course Major Fair, and Education Week. The Committee is also publisher of The Practical Scholar : A Student’s Guide to Academics at Penn, and Perspectives : Thoughts on a Liberal Education. In the past the Committee also published the Undergraduate Course Guide, or the “SCUE guide,” which is now handled by another student group. Currently some of the Committee’s projects include the development of interdisciplinary University Minors, an attempt to secure more reading days for undergraduates, a proposal for a rhetoric program entitles Speaking Across the University, the development of a common freshman course, and a comprehensive review of academic advising at Penn. Work on the 1995 White Paper on Undergraduate Education is under way.

SCUE’s membership consists of thirty-seven undergraduates from all four schools who are selected by a six-member Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is elected by a full Committee vote each January. The Committee accepts applications for membership from freshman and sophomores both in the fall and in the spring semesters.

(Excerpted from: What is SCUE? Written by the Committee)

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The records of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education reflect the full range of concerns of the group from the administration of the office to a variety of the Committee’s finished projects. There are files on academic integrity, course curriculum, issues of diversity, faculty advising, information on majors, the grading system, undergraduate life, and the various committees with which SCUE has worked to accomplish many of its objectives. Much of the material served as source material for the committee’s working “White Papers” including the run of clippings, 1965-1989, from the Daily Pennsylvania. Represented in these records is a complete and rich history of a relatively young, but important, student organization dedicated to improving the academic quality of life at the University of Pennsylvania.

Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

University of Pennsylvania. — General subdivision–Students.;

Subject(s)

Educational change–Pennsylvania–Philadelphia.

Educational counseling–Pennsylvania–Philadelphia.

Student evaluation of curriculum–Pennsylvania–Philadelphia.

Student evaluation of teachers–Pennsylvania–Philadelphia.

Student participation in administration–Pennsylvania–Philadelphia.

Inventory