Pre-professional worries bring about reorganization

by Dave Collins A suspicion that Rice is not producing students for professional schools as efficiently as possible has led to a reorganization of Rice's pre-professional advising effort . Beginning this fall, premedical, pre-law and pre-business students will have new faces to which to turn for counseling. Dr. Ronald Stebbings, Rice's dean of undergraduate affairs, recently announced the establishment of a new pre-med advisory commit tee and the appointment of Accounting Professor Stephen A. Zeff to the new position of prebusiness advisor. Stebbings also mentioned that a new pre-law advisor will be named by spring 1984. In a m e m o r a n d u m dated August 24, Stebbings announced that the p r e m e d a d v i s o r y c o m m i t t e e would consis t of six facul ty members: Drs. Jo rge Awapara of t h e b i o c h e m i s t r y d e p a r t m e n t (chairman), Stephen D. Baker of physics, W.E. Billups of chemistry, Susan L. Clark of German and Russian, Kathleen S. Matthews of biochemistry, and Roger L. Storck of biology. Each member will p e r f o r m the s a m e f u n c t i o n under taken by current Pre-Med Advisor Awapara . According to the memo, "The Commit tee is charged with the task of identifying and implementing possible improvements in the advising procedure. Students are encouraged to seek advice and informat ion f rom any of the committee members." "Each member of the commit tee represents one of the m a j o r d i s c i p l i n e s s u p p l y i n g m e d i c a l s t u d e n t s , w i t h D r . C l a r k represen t ing eve rybody else." S tebb ings told the Threshe r O s t e n s i b l y , " e v e r y b o d y e lse" includes engineering, liberal arts, and humanities majors . Stebbings was optimistic that the expanded program would make counseling more accessible to pre-meds seeking information on medical school curricula and en t rance r equ i r emen t s . "If a student has someone in his own department to go to, he'll feel more comfortable about asking the right questions," he explained.