Access is granted in accordance with the
Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center.
PROVENANCE
The Records for the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE)
were transferred to the University Archives and Records Center on May
16, 1994.
AGENCY HISTORY
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.
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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.
(Excerpted from: What is SCUE? as published by the
Committee)
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