On Our Hill
By Joe Marsicano
For The Capital Times
"On Our Hill" will be a new column to
keep students informed of news and
events from inside our state capitol. This
will be a non-partisan column to keep
rhetorical comments away from the facts.
With all elections finished and the
Philadelphia recount over, things are now
settling down in Harrisburg.
Here's what's new on Capitol Hill.
The Republicans kept control of the
House of Representatives with a 104-99
majority and control of the state Senate
with a 30-20 majority. John M. Perzel (R
-172 District), the Majority House Leader,
won his election by a mere 92 votes after
a recount.
Questions arose from the Democratic
Caucus about the results of the House
race. Democrats invested a huge sum of
money into House races in an effort to
regain control of the Pennsylvania House.
The results of the election show the
Democrats received a majority of the
presidential votes for candidate Al Gore
but lost many House races to the
Republicans. This is a simple result of
split-ticket voting. The Democrats contin
ue to investigate reasons for losing anoth
er seat in the House.
This year, Pennsylvanians elected five
more women to the House of
Representatives, bringing the total to 28
women. That's still only 14 percent. This
keeps Pennsylvania near the bottom of the
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A lovely view of Pennsylvania's Capitol
building on a fine autumn afternoon.
list nationally for women's representation
Lt. Gov. Mark S. Schweiker
announced he will not run for governor in
2002 to succeed Tom Ridge. Schweiker
wants to spend more time with his family.
The Capitol was evacuated Monday,
Nov. 20 for a bomb threat. Everyone was
evacuated around 9:30 a.m., and employ
ees were allowed to return to their offices
at 11:30 a.m. With the House and Senate
trying to wrap up the year and the stress of
sine die, I feel the person caught should be
sent a bill for two hours wages for 1,200
Capitol employees.
Campus Question & Answer
Question
"I have been a student here at PSU
capital campus for two semesters. Why do
the secretaries of various departments
here at PSH play a more active role in stu
dent advising and scheduling than the
advisors? By the way, the secretaries pro
vide accurate information and guidance
when my advisor fails to."
Response from
Associate Dean for
Academic Affairs
Dr. M. Susan Richman
The Academic Council, which
includes all of the school directors and
academic administrators, discussed this
question and expressed the great impor
tance placed on the quality of advising. I
don't know in
which school you "Why do the secretaries of various "degree
are enrolled, but de
-- ;
Dr. Steven P tint thing
more active role in student advising
Peterson, director remember is: Don't
of the school of and scheduling than the advisors?" panic when the
public affairs,
provided the following response, which
would be equally applicable to all of the
schools:
If a student 'drops by' without an
appointment and if an academic advisor is
present (even if not the student's own
advisor), the faculty member will handle
any questions of a student. If it happens
that no advisors are around from the stu
dent's major, then an administrative or
staff assistant would help the student. Our
assistants get very positive responses
from students for their knowledge and
helpfulness.
A staff assistant is often the first con
tact for a student seeking information and
soon gets a lot of experience in fielding
questions. Your acknowledgement that
our staff assistants provide valuable ser
vice is very much appreciated.
A few words of advice and sympathy,
on degree audits: Degree audits are prob
ably the greatest source of advising-relat
ed frustration at Penn State Harrisburg.
With changes in curricula, including
changes in the general education require
ments for every one of our majors, the
degree audit system has a number of
glitches.
You have probably used eLion. Penn
Address questions to:
Q&A Column
The Capital Times, Olmsted W 341,
777 W. Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, PA 17057 or e-mail to:
captimes@psu.edu
State's online advising support system, to
access your academic records. You may
have been faced with an inaccurate degree
audit and, after the initial panic, tried to
have your advisor make the changes nec
essary to "fix it." The good news is that,
once the audit is "fixed" and properly
reflects your academic record, it is a mar
velous source of information on your
progress toward your degree. But "fixing
it" is not always a simple process. Once
the faculty advisor determines what
changes should be made to the degree
audit, e.g., moving courses from one cate
gory to another or indicating that a trans
ferred course meets a specific require-
ment, in some programs, the staff assis
tants are responsible for making those
changes. But often "the system" does not
respond as expected and the changes may
require several attempts and even a con-
artments here at PSH play a guru." The impor-
degree audit sud
denly informs you that you have to take
an additional 87 credits in order to gradu
ate! The degree audit may require a fair
amount of tinkering, but we will get it
right. The audit can be cleaned up and
should be, as soon as possible. Meet with
your advisor early in your time here to
ensure that your degree audit is correct.
Don't wait until the semester you expect
to graduate.
One more thing, although you can use
your access account to register for cours
es online, i.e. without your advisor's sig
nature, please meet with your advisor
first. He or she can often tell you things
that are not obvious from the schedule of
classes, such as, "That course is offered
only once a year so you'd better take it
next semester or you may not be able to
graduate on time." While staff assistants
are usually available at their desks, facul
ty responsibilities often take them away
from their offices, so it is a good idea to
come during scheduled office hours or
make an appointment.
Thank you for bringing this to our
attention. Advising is an important part of
a successful student experience, and we
need student feedback to see that it is
done successfully.
sultation with the