With only five more academic weeks left this semester, the Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly has much to accomplish.

The Assembly lists about 35 projects on its agenda.

Three important issues for this semester, said Assembly President D. Josh Troxell, are the first-year seminar survey, the change in student identification numbers and the change in the university's general international and intercultural competency (GI) requirement. The Assembly is awaiting action on many of these issues from the University Faculty Senate, Troxell said.

First-year seminar survey

At Monday night's meeting, the Assembly voted unanimously to adopt an 80-page first-year seminar survey report, which will result in copies being sent to administrators.

"This will help fuel discussion among administrators to find a solution to the issue of what the first-year seminar should be," said Bradley Hoagland, the Assembly's vice president of programming.

The survey was distributed in October 2002 to first-year seminar students and Troxell has been working with the Office of Undergraduate Education and a Faculty Senate task force to analyze and summarize the results.

No numerical data from the report will be released outside of Penn State, because the Assembly did not get consent for human testing.

Troxell said obtaining consent would have taken an additional six to nine months.

"We decided to sacrifice the availability of the report for the time frame," he said.

Student ID numbers

As early as this summer, Penn State students could see a change in the way the university issues student ID numbers.

Troxell said the Office of the Registrar is working with the university to use random numbers to identify students instead of Social Security numbers, because of safety concerns.

Cheryl Gallagher, senior associate registrar, said Penn State will reissue student ID numbers and cards by July.

Troxell said the Assembly brought this issue before administrators three years ago, and has checked on progress since then. He said the Assembly's role is to publicize the change.

"They [administrators] want us to spearhead the informational campaign to let students and faculty know about this change," he said.

GI requirement changes

Proposed legislation to change the university's GI requirement is working its way through the Faculty Senate, Troxell said.

The most recent legislation proposed incorporating U.S. cultures into the international cultures requirement, he said.

Students can take one 3-credit class in either international cultures or U.S. cultures to fulfill the GI requirement. However, he said, the university must first create additional courses in U.S. cultures to make this feasible.

The Assembly first brought the issue to a Faculty Senate task force's attention two years ago, and it has continued to make recommendations.

Troxell said a vote may come in the spring.