Sarah Jackel '01 was elected Academic Affairs Commissioner (AAC) on Thursday, January 27 for the remainder of the school year, replacing Jake Oken-Berg '01 who resigned at the end of last semester.

Oken-Berg's resignation was a result of his decision to run for mayor of his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Taking a leave of absence to run his campaign, he is currently the leading opponent to incumbent Vera Katz.

"I personally think it was a great move for him," ASPC President Richard Park '00 said. "A few projects are kind of on hold [due to Oken-Berg's resignation], but I know Sarah will catch up pretty quickly." Park worked with Jackel on senate last year, when they were Vice President and South Campus Senator respectively.

Jackel admits that taking office halfway through the school year is a bit intimidating, but feels well equipped for whatever the AAC position has in store for her.

As the Academic Affairs Commissioner, Jackel will sit on the Academic Procedures Committee, Curriculum Committee, and Student Faculty Interaction Committee. She acts as the senate's liaison to each of these committees and will voice student opinions and concerns in addition to voting on issues.

She feels that a strong student presence is required on student-faculty committees because faculty hold the majority of the seats. Describing herself as "fairly outspoken and somewhat audacious," she feels that she "will be ready to say 'hey, wait a minute, this is where we're are coming from,' and get some of the faculty on [our] side."

One issue Jackel hopes to address this year is the 8:20 am time slot for Freshman Interdisciplinary Seminars, ID 1. This early time slot has been a discussion point in the past, but she hopes that more research into the situation will lead to a solution.

"I certainly think 8:20 is a little early, especially for freshmen, who have just gotten here and are going crazy and want to have fun," Jackel said.

Feeling that "a writing exam on the second day of orientation is [not necessarily] indicative of your ability to write," she also hopes to open discussion on the ID 15 composition course. Freshmen who do not pass Pomona's written examination are required to enroll in ID 15 during their first semester to help improve their writing skills. Instead of making it a first semester course, she is considering trying to push the course to second semester, thereby allowing ID 1 professors to judge whether a student needs further help in writing.

Another proposed reform is one that will help students decide whether to P/NC or to drop a course. Under the current rules, students have until March 10 to decide whether to drop or P/NC a course. Students who decide to P/NC or drop a class after that deadline must submit a petition to the Academic Procedures Committee.

"The petitioning process is really intimidating for students, so they'll just stay in the class or not P/NC it, even if that is not in their best interest," Jackel said.

Students have voiced concerns about this deadline because some professors do not return a grade to them by this deadline. This leaves students with no sense of how well they are doing in their class. To resolve this problem, Jackel promotes a requirement that all professors return a test or a substantive piece of work before the drop deadline.

"I want to make certain that if for some reason you don't have a grade back by that day, then you can get a signature from the professor saying the day you did get a grade back," Jackel said. "Then you don't have to petition, and it would go straight through as it would have if you had gotten the grade back before the deadline."

Keeping in line with some student concerns regarding faculty, Jackel hopes to oversee changes in the student course review. She points out both a lack in the number of reviews and the low accessibility of the reviews to students.

Antoher possible model is the one adopted by Claremont McKenna. The Claremont McKenna Student Course Review includes overviews of all courses, even those taught by tenured professors, and a copy is kept in each Resident Adviser's dorm room. "As long as it's accessible, then that's a step in the right direction," Jackel said.

One of the more controversial issues Jackel hopes to address is the current system of cumulative credit, or 'cumes.' Cumes, worth a quarter-credit, generally meet once a week and are less academic in nature; music lessons and physical education courses are both cumulative credit courses. Additionally, there are half-credit activities, such as Dance.

While students are allowed to take as many of these types of courses as they wish, only two per semester appear on their transcripts. Any extra cumes or half-credit activities a student takes do not appear on an official transcript. Students majoring in subjects requiring multiple cumes of half-credits semester cite this limit as not allowing them enough acknowledgement for their work. "[Cume courses] take up a lot of time, easily as much as homework," Joanna Takagi '01 said. "But if I apply to grad schools, they're not going to see all the work I've done."

To further complicate matters, a cap has been placed on the number of credits that a student can receive from cumulative courses (2 full credits), but not from half-credit activities. Theoretically, a student could receive eight credits towards graduation by engaging in two half-credit activities per semester.

For these reasons, Oken-Berg had focused on the system as one needing reform. One of the ideas presented, now being considered by Jackel, is the possibility of removing the restriction on the number of cumes and half-credit activities appearing on a student's transcript, without changing the two credit cap on cumes. This would be accomplished through attaching an addendum to students' transcripts for the purpose of listing all cume courses passed.

Some administrators have expressed concerns to the committee in the past that this would result in the transcript looking too much like a resume, according to Oken-Berg. Even so, most would like students to receive recognition of some sort for all the cumes they take.

In addition to the major points in her platform, Jackel is researching the possibility of giving varsity athletes half a course credit for their participation on school teams, but admits that such a move would create problems in drawing the line between what is considered a quarter credit activity and a half credit activity. "I certainly think you deserve credit for bringing recognition to the school," Jackel said. "But there needs to be more research put into it."

Associate Dean of Students Neil Gerard hopes that once Jackel gets up to speed on Senate issues, she will be able to initiate discussion for the various changes she proposes. "I don't think Sarah can do it alone," Gerard said, "but she may be the catalyst for beginning these changes."