ACCESS & EQUITY

Introduction

 Dear President Gutmann and Provost Pritchett,  

For this section of the White Paper, we sought to describe the current conditions of access and equity affairs on Penn’s campus. Our particular goal for this section is to focus on the resources and opportunities that students have access to and to think of ways in which they can be made widely available. We want administrators to consider policies that contribute to the thematic roots of our institution centered around being a campus made for the integration and interaction of the four undergraduate schools to yield an equal and rewarding four-year undergraduate education. Our committee has structured this section of the White Paper into various topics for your consideration including helping students transition into college, increasing diversity sensitivity, improving academic advising, making accessible transportation easier to access, and reducing nursing school course costs. Ultimately, we believe addressing these topics will push towards the promotion of a general sentiment of belonging among the Penn community.

Sincerely, 

Karen Herrera and Daniel Iglesias
Class of 2021 and Class of 2022

Helping Students Successfully Transition to College

Status Quo

Penn’s pre-college preparatory programs have evolved since the 1970s, starting with the Pre-Freshman Program (PFP), designed to help students from underrepresented backgrounds prepare for a rigorous college education. Three summer bridge programs now exist: the Pre-Freshman Program (PFP), the Africana Studies Summer Institute, and the Successful Transition and Empowerment Program (STEP). In total, they serve 130 students each year*.

While each different in their agendas and specific focuses, these programs all aim to provide incoming first-year students skills to handle a college workload, make connections to professors going into class, and start a social network.

Other programs with similar goals include PennCLASS, an online course that assesses the level of preparation CHEM-101 students have prior to enrolling in the class, providing tutorials for content they need to solidify before the start of the course*. All students enrolled in CHEM-101 must complete the assessments and tutorials of PennCLASS; which costs $20 per student*. Additionally, the Tutoring Center provides students the opportunity to participate in a math program that reviews the tools and knowledge required to succeed in college calculus. In this academic program, a facilitator reviews key concepts, and students work on practice problems with the help and support of tutors*.

Key Terms

Summer bridge programs: Programs between the end of highschool and the start of college that help students socially and academically transition into the university community.

Problem

Even with expanded opportunities for bridge and preparatory programs, there is still a wide range of preparedness come the first day of class. No two high schools offer the same rigor of classes and, even then, there is no guarantee that a student from a more rigorous academic program is ready for a Penn education.

Additionally, at present, Wharton is the only undergraduate school that offers a summer bridge program for historically underrepresented students. However, the Engineering School has an Advancing Women Engineers pre-orientation program with a different angle of addressing mentorship for women, who are underrepresented in the field, but it does not address underrepresented racial or socioeconomic minorities.

SCUE finds that other schools would benefit from the creation of such programs to help underrepresented students transition into life at Penn. Additionally, in a series of focus groups, students noted that there are often academic expectations that students do not feel prepared to address, including writing at the collegiate level, being prepared for the rigor of STEM classes, and developing the confidence to attend office hours. During these focus groups, Penn students often referenced the potential value of more structured programming that can help equip them for the intensity of academic life at Penn.

Solutions:

1. SCUE recommends Penn institute online introductory, preparatory courses that all students can opt into, which would serve a similar purpose to the PennCLASS model instituted by the Chemistry Department.
   This initiative would increase access to skills that SCUE believes facilitate the success of all first years — and any upperclassmen — that choose to participate from various backgrounds in introductory classes. For example, the Biology Department can create a Canvas module for students who will be taking BIOL-101. Students can take an assessment that measures their preparation for the course and then have tutorials recommended to them that would review concepts they were less familiar with on the assessment. Once classes begin, all students would have a similar foundational knowledge, which is expected but typically not taught in most introductory classes. Having an online bridge course for students taking introductory classes is an alternative to on-campus programming that is both flexible and widely accessible. If students do not qualify for on-campus summer bridge programs or are not part of academic programming prior to coming to Penn, they still have the opportunity to prepare themselves for the rigor of college courses. A similar model to the one that SCUE is proposing was adopted at a university in the Midwest with low pass rates in college algebra and remedial mathematics. Students who completed an online program to prepare them for the rigor of mathematics classes at this university significantly increased their mathematics placement scores and had a higher pass rate in an introductory mathematical course relative to the rest of their peers.

2. Additionally, the other three undergraduate schools provide similar programs to Wharton’s STEP, as this would provide a comparable alternative for students that cannot participate in PFP.
   While this experience would not be academic, many students from underrepresented backgrounds would benefit from the social integration of school-specific programming that takes place during a four-day immersive experience.

Looking Forward to 2025

Looking forward, SCUE hopes to see these recommendations instituted across the University. SCUE envisions the institution of academic bridge programs for introductory classes across various departments including, but not limited to: Economics, Mathematics, Biology, and Computer and Information Science. Additionally, the Body envisions the expansion of current and new summer bridge programs that allow for greater student participation. Years from now, the Body would like to see programs similar to STEP instituted across all undergraduate schools. The former recommendations would result in greater academic equity across the student body, improved access to Penn resources, and a social network that supports students’ undergraduate success.

Diversity Sensitivity

Status Quo

Currently, faculty are encouraged to some degree to think about what inclusion in the classroom could look like. SCUE, along with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), recognizes that one-off courses for large groups of people are not the most effective in terms of creating lasting shifts in institutional attitudes because inclusion and sensitivity training needs to be reinforced and understood critically. As a result, CTL currently offers year-long seminars that aim to increase faculty knowledge about issues of inclusivity; faculty who sign up for and participate in these seminars receive an $800 research stipend. For these seminars, faculty read required materials listed on the syllabus provided at the beginning of the course and then participate in discussions. Currently, Dr. Jamiella Brooks facilitates the discussions. She encourages faculty members to engage with the material, bring in their own experiences, and discover ways to make classroom content, syllabi, and their teaching practices more inclusive. CTL targets professors that are teaching introductory courses in an attempt to help support first years adjusting to a new college environment. Additionally, Dr. Jamiella Brooks makes herself available to professors with individualized questions regarding course content.

Problems

Some undergraduates feel that their learning environments are not inclusive of all identities. Many students feel that professors and administrators lack awareness of these issues, which can lead to uncomfortable situations in class lectures or while talking to the professor one-on-one.

Solutions

While the aforementioned efforts are laudable, SCUE observes that these programs tend to be self-selecting. Realistically, only professors who have a prior interest in these discussions will sign up to commit their time. SCUE hopes to take further action to empower all faculty to make students feel comfortable, by normalizing these conversations in all departments.

1. The body recommends working with entities like the cultural centers, the Chaplain’s office, the LGBT center, the Women’s Center, Penn First Plus, and other identity-based student groups to develop a handbook or sensitivity-management flowchart for understanding issues relating to race, gender, sexual orientation, financial status, immigration status, mental health, and more. This handbook will hopefully build on CTL’s work and help faculty navigate through course content, social and professional practices, and syllabi formation. Within syllabi formation, professors should explicitly communicate policies toward mental health days and when materials may be sensitive to a student’s identity. SCUE believes that having the above as a resource document can help professors refer back to important points, but it is also important to continue to support initiatives like CTL’s training. This guide can help develop a series of hour-long discussion training in conjunction with CTL where each session focuses on specific topics.

   1. These sessions of training should be run internally by each department, so it can be tailored to those students’ specific needs. Additionally, the Body suggests that professors receive some degree of training in supporting students who struggle with mental health and neurodivergence, with a focus on how mental health issues can impact academic performance, and how academic stress can exacerbate mental health issues. In this case, CAPS could develop such training, while members of SCUE and student-run mental health organizations could facilitate its creation.

   2. Moreover, SCUE recommends that the Provost consider adding these training sessions as requirements for those interested in pursuing important faculty and administrative posts, like department chairs. Thus, any faculty member promoted to the chair of their department will have to complete these trainings to be appointed. Hopefully, this will also shift the department culture towards seeking out such opportunities. Additionally, this requirement should be attached to tenure designation, and new faculty members should be required to enroll in such training sessions as part of their onboarding process.

2. The need for comprehensive sensitivity training points to a broader issue at Penn: students feel that there is a significant lack of faculty diversity. This concern is acutely present in departments like Latin American and Latino Studies and Asian-American Studies. Students report wanting to feel connected to their teachers and see themselves represented in the faculty members who teach them. While there is increased diversity among adjunct professors in recent years, tenured professorships remain significantly less diverse than their non-tenured colleagues.
   A crucial element in faculty diversity is retention. SCUE suggests that the Provost form a committee to investigate the reasons that faculty choose to leave, and then utilize this information to target areas in which faculty do not feel supported. Together with the departments, deans, and the Faculty Senate, the committee can work on solutions for higher faculty retention. 

Looking Forward to 2025

These efforts should be supported by infrastructural change. The Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Nursing have a Vice or Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusivity. While the Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Development, Diversity, and Equity continues to do important work, it is also important that each undergraduate school establish a Dean of Diversity Equity, and Inclusion, as exists in SEAS, that can provide more infrastructural support to carry out these initiatives. These deans should assist the Provost in identifying and recruiting faculty and administrators with diverse backgrounds, and helping faculty with marginalized identities reach the tenure track and higher department positions. This dean should be responsible for encouraging postdoctoral fellows to take advantage of Penn’s existing programs that aim to expand faculty diversity, such as by providing mentorship opportunities for these postdoctoral students, adapting Diversity Search Advisors (DSAs) guidelines for their school’s specific needs, and orchestrating the development of anti-bias guidelines for hiring new staff and administrators. They should also serve as an avenue through which existing faculty can voice their concerns about diversity in their department.

Academic Advising

Status Quo

At Penn, the advising staff, both professional and voluntary, is one of the core structures which help students work through their issues and find direction through the thousands of courses and options. Academic advising at Penn is handled by a students’ home school (or special academic program where applicable); the College, Wharton, Engineering, and Nursing, each have their own staff and policies. In addition, different Penn departments and offices (such as financial aid, career services, study abroad, and the First Plus office) also have their own advising staff, specially equipped to handle the particular needs of their departments.

In this section, SCUE is particularly focused on the College’s underclass advising system for multiple reasons: it serves a school with the most academic breadth and variety, and it is the most complex of the undergraduate advising programs, with each student being assigned to no less than three advisors at a time. This is not to say that the advising in the College is “bad,” or that other schools’ advising programs are “better,” but we chose this because SCUE received the most feedback – and therefore feels most comfortable – giving suggestions for advising in the College.

First-year students in the college are assigned at least three advisors soon after matriculation: a peer advisor, College contact, and pre-major advisor. Each has unique backgrounds and serves different purposes.

Peer advisors are most active leading up to and during New Student Orientation (NSO.) Starting in the early summer, peer advisors make email contact with their advisees and offer advice on registering for courses, making housing plans, and other transitional/foundational new student needs.

The College Contact is a member of the College Office and is primarily responsible for advising their assigned students. The College Contact is often the most well-versed in academic policies and serves as an important bridge into the administrative function of the college.

The Pre-Major advisor is a member of the College’s faculty or full-time staff who take on advising in addition to their other responsibilities. They are important in that they give new students a first contact with a member of Penn’s academic community.

Problems

Across SCUE focus groups, issues were highlighted, particularly with peer advisors and contacts. In general, it was felt that peer advisors’ formal responsibilities should be expanded to extend into the first semester and that college contacts could be more intentional in connecting students with other Penn resources or opportunities early on. Some students felt that they were precluded from certain opportunities – namely study abroad – because they were not informed early on that the specific programs they had in mind had particular academic requirements.

Solutions

1. Pair students with advisors who share similar backgrounds and identities.
   SCUE recommends a shift in focus towards making sure each advisor fits the needs of their students, including their background and identity. SCUE suggests using the Penn First Plus Center’s initiatives as a model, which hopes to create a space for first-generation, low income (FGLI) advisors who can personally relate to and understand the issues of their advisees. This model should be utilized in the other areas of the University to make students feel more comfortable and confident in facilitating interactions between them and their advisor.

2. Emphasize increased, sustained interaction between advisors and advisees.
   To address the underutilization of advisors, there needs to be a greater emphasis on maintaining advisor contact with their advisees. The body suggests that the College’s Peer Advisor program be enhanced by more formal programming throughout the first semester, such as a meeting after the Student Activities Council fair (when students often contend with the stress of multiple club applications and increased time commitments) and before advanced registration for the Spring semester.

Looking forward to 2025

SCUE believes that these initiatives, if implemented, will make a memorable impact on the student experience here at Penn, consequently improving mental wellness and overall student health on campus, especially for first years. It is the hope of the Body that when these changes are implemented, students feel more welcome when transitioning to Penn’s campus and remain confident as they move forward through their college career.

Accessible Transportation

Status Quo

The University provides transportation to disabled students through the Penn Accessible Transit (PAT) program. While this is a necessary service, the PAT system has negatively impacted the academic experiences of disabled students at Penn due to its unreliable arrival times and its unreasonably high parameters for qualification. Lack of accessible transportation is also a barrier to some students participating in ABCS courses or other community outreach programs because of the high cost of transportation to and from off-campus locations.

Key Terms

PAT: The Penn Accessible Transit program is an accommodation available to students with disabilities to help them get around campus during the day. There are vans that can be requested through an application or over the phone. 

ABCS courses: Academically-Based Community Service courses are courses available for students to go into the Philadelphia community to engage in civic service related to their coursework. 

SDS: Student Disabilities Services is the organization on campus that aids students who need accommodations to make their time on campus easier. 

Problems

While some students receive permanent assistance from PAT throughout their time at Penn, other students use the service temporarily. Deadlines for the termination of their access to PAT is strict, particularly for students with injuries. For example, the current policy stipulates that as soon as a student has their boot/cast/brace removed, they are unable to use PAT services. This can result in students who are not fully recovered having to fund their own transportation in order to attend their classes. 

For disabled students who use PAT full-time, shortcomings in the scheduling app and the current transit system can negatively impact their ability to fully engage with the Penn community. Students who currently receive transit through PAT report that the app that allows them to schedule rides is unreliable, resulting in students arriving late to class or sometimes missing class entirely. When contacted about the lengthy wait-times, riders were told to schedule their rides in advance and even then students have reported unreliable arrival times. One student in particular stated that she ended up missing her lecture because her ride’s estimated arrival time kept delaying, “[W]hile I understand that traffic can impact wait-times, having to stand outside for thirty minutes to just have to cancel the ride in the end is unacceptable.” These failures significantly complicate the daily lives of disabled students, often with detrimental effects on their academic experiences at Penn. 

Access to transportation also plays an integral part in students’ extracurricular experiences at Penn. In focus groups, students expressed interest in more widespread access to local transportation on the SEPTA system, especially for highly-aided students. For many low-income students, the lack of access to regional transit limits their ability to pursue off-campus jobs or internships. Having more accessible and affordable access to the transit system would make it easier for many Penn students to take advantage of the opportunities that Penn offers. 

Solutions

1. Ensure regular maintenance to and communication about the PAT system app.
   To correct these shortcomings related to the PAT system, SCUE recommends regular maintenance to the app. This maintenance will ensure that the online ride scheduling portal functions consistently and that the transportation provided aligns with students’ academic schedules. Also, the Body believes that there should be more communication between PAT and SDS to ensure that no student is being denied a needed service. Additionally, to ensure that all students have the support necessary to fully recover from injuries, SCUE suggests that PAT policy rely on the recommendation of a recovering student’s physician. To guarantee that disabled students are not hindered by lack of access to transportation, Penn should devote more resources to ensuring their access to this service is not unexpectedly discontinued. 

2. Give students a per-semester SEPTA budget.
   Part of Franklin’s vision for a liberal arts education was community service and knowing one’s communities. Because of the strength of the Penn bubble, many students often do not venture into Philadelphia except for dinners or other special occasions. SCUE recommends that Penn gives students a $20 per-semester SEPTA budget, modeled after programs at Drexel, Columbia, and the University of Chicago. While this five round trip-equivalent is certainly not expansive, it can be a substantial catalyst for Penn students to take a weekend and explore the area. SCUE understands that this could become expensive, but there are ways Penn could reduce some costs. By purchasing and distributing SEPTA Keys, Penn could top up every students’ associated SEPTA key to $20 at the start of a semester (as opposed to giving $20 each semester), so students who do not use the card will not present a financial burden.
   

Looking forward to 2025

Looking towards the future, SCUE hopes that Penn can work with the transit system to guarantee proper transportation to students with disabilities, and that the University can partner with SEPTA to offer public transportation to all students. Simple changes to the various transportation resources around campus can relieve one of the many stresses students experience in their daily life.

Nursing School Course Costs

Status Quo

There are many mandatory expenses in the undergraduate Nursing program that are not adequately covered by financial aid or disclosed to students in advance: clinical transportation costs, scrubs, other equipment, background checks and clearance evaluations prior to mandatory clinicals, and more. Nurses have to fund their own Simulation Lab costs. There are resources to subsidize clinical transportation for highly-aided students but they are only available through a Zipcar account, which excludes students who are not age-eligible or financially capable of qualifying for the Zipcar service.

Problem

Discrepancies in external costs for academic necessities and student experiences present unequal barriers to success at Penn.

Solutions

1. The School of Nursing should increase transparency about costs for incoming students before classes are finalized. 

2. The School of Nursing should fund transportation costs for clinicals for students on financial aid through a SEPTA card program that automatically loads cards with exact commuting costs for round-trip clinical costs, or a Concur reimbursement program. More generally, Nursing should fund equipment costs and certification expenses, such as mandatory CPR certifications, for required courses.

Looking forward to 2025

Looking towards the future, SCUE hopes that Penn will offer more transparency about Nursing school costs and work with SEPTA to fund clinical transportation costs for students. These changes would remove many economic barriers for students in the Nursing program and give them an equal opportunity to succeed at Penn.