My name is Luc Schrauf, and I am a third-year student majoring in Physics with a minor in Math and Nanotechnology. I served as the College of Science Representative to the UPUA during the 18th assembly and the College of Science Representative to the Faculty Senate during the 18th and 19th assembly. I hope to be re-elected as the College of Science Representative to the Faculty Senate to continue pushing for the initiatives I began during the 18th and 19th Assembly.

I helped draft and conduct research for the 19-credit resolution passed in the 18th assembly, which has more recently been presented to the Faculty Senate. This resolution aims to relieve the financial burdens imposed on students by Penn State’s recent 19-credit surcharge. With the support of the Faculty Senate, I hope to relieve most of the financial burdens students experience due to the 19-credit surcharge. This coming term I would push to make exemptions in LionPath such that students can register for a handful of credit-bearing courses without being charged if they exceed 19 credits.

Within the Faculty Senate, I have been advocating for the addition of new course attributes, and with the addition of the Attribute Subcommittee in the Committee of Curricular Affairs, I hope to see this initiative through this next year. New course attributes would mean students would be able to more easily filter through courses to find courses that fit their interests. During the 19th assembly I served on the Committee of Education, and with my gained experience, I hope to return to the Committee of Curricular Affairs to push for a Sustainability Attribute for courses.

In addition to working on 19-credit and the sustainability attribute, this year I hope to establish a new outreach program for undergraduate research opportunities. Our college is one heavily involved in research, and this provides us, as undergraduate students, with an enormous opportunity to gain research experience early in our careers. However, it can often be difficult to find research opportunities with little to no previous research experience. This coming term I plan to push for the inclusion of research opportunities in department and college wide communications. This type of outreach was successful in finding undergraduates’ research positions in the physics department, and I am eager to establish a similar outreach program in other ECOS departments.

Finally, I feel as though I can effectively represent the Eberly College of Science in the Faculty Senate as I have worked with the ECOS Student Council to pass bills sponsoring Eberly student events. My experience drafting bills with the ECOS student council, and regularly attending ECOS events, makes me hopeful that I can effectively represent my college in the Faculty Senate.