The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Academic Assembly discussed the ways Penn State is addressing specific student complaints at its weekly meeting Monday night.

The assembly's guest speaker, Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education and International Programs Janis Jacobs, led the discussion and said a chief concern held by student is inadequate advising.

"They are almost always not satisfied," Jacobs said.

To address the problem, an advising council was formed this year, which will use such methods as distributing questionnaires to help pinpoint specific areas of concern.

"They will try to figure out what are issues in advising," Jacobs said.

Another matter that surfaced during the discussion was the language barrier between international teaching assistants (TAs) and students.

Jacobs said that although TAs are required to undergo a series of interviews and testing to receive approval to teach undergraduate classes, the system is sometimes flawed.

"We haven't done a good job of checking our systems," she said.

She said the university acknowledges that this is a legitimate student concern and is seeking to improve the matter.

In the area of study abroad education, Jacobs said some students are finding difficulties in spending an extended amount of time overseas. She added that the University Office of International Programs is trying to increase the number of students who choose to study abroad by creating more flexibility in programming.

One way to do this is to make more short-term study abroad programs available for those students who are unable to spend an entire school year or semester overseas, Jacobs said.

During the question-and-answer session, College of Engineering Sen. Josh Hauenstein addressed grade inflation at Penn State.

"It is an issue that has been discussed a lot," Jacobs said, and added that the university holds mixed feelings on grade inflation. "The problem is what do you do about it," she said.