New applications will be solicited later this week for a fourth student member to serve on the Task Force on Undergraduate Education.
The decision to allow another student to join the committee, which will undertake a wholesale review of the undergraduate College, was made Wednesday morning by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron after a week-long discussion with the Undergraduate Council of Students and the current members of the task force.
"It'll likely be a rapid-fire process," said Rakim Brooks '09, a task force member who last week was elected as UCS academic and administrative affairs chair for next year.
Brooks said he expects applications will be due by Monday, and candidates will be interviewed over the following two days.
The task force currently comprises 10 faculty members and three undergraduates and will make recommendations to University officials in the spring of 2008.
The decision to add another student was made to ensure student representation on all four of the task force's subcommittees, each of which will address one section of the committee's charge, said Sara Damiano '08, the current UCS academic and administrative affairs chair.
"When I heard there were four subcommittees, I was concerned that three students couldn't adequately represent the students on the task force," Damiano said.
The possibility of a fourth member was discussed at the task force's first meeting Thursday, and Brooks decided to reopen the application pool to the entire student body after consultation with Jason Becker '09 and Fiona Heckscher '09, the other two student members of the committee, Damiano said.
Brooks said he, Heckscher and Becker were worried that one of them would have to "double up" their workload and sit on two subcommittees to guarantee student representation throughout the task force.
Bergeron's decision to add another student "allows us to serve the Brown community more effectively (as otherwise) it would have taken more energy than we probably all had," Brooks said.
