Freshman Seminars Make Connections
Islam and the West. Harry Potter. Racial profiling. Sounds like a series of conversations overheard in a café. But in fact, these are just a few of the provocative topics covered in the freshman seminars offered to CLA students this year.
CLA Faculty connect
Giancarlo Casale looks at cultures in perspective
Monica Luciana and madness in the movies
In freshman seminars, new students in the College of Liberal Arts and their counterparts throughout the University get the opportunity to learn from top-notch faculty and study innovative topics in a small classroom setting. Part of the University’s effort to enrich the first-year experience, freshman seminars have been by all accounts an overwhelming success. And it’s no wonder; the engaging, intimate dialogue that takes place in freshman seminars embodies the very essence of a liberal arts education: the vital connection between faculty and students.
What’s so great about freshman seminars?
CLA offers about 50 freshman seminars each year, mostly during fall semester. The seminars are capped at 20 students, or an overall capacity of 1,000 students—about 38 percent of CLA freshmen. The seminars are so popular that some fill the first day of registration, says Nanette Hanks, CLA assistant dean for curriculum.
Across the Twin Cities campus, 125 to 150 freshman seminars are offered annually, with just under one-third of eligible students participating, says Laura Coffin Koch, associate vice provost and Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematics. Students who take freshman seminars have higher retention rates and higher four- and five-year graduation rates, she notes.
Photo by Terry Faust
The seminars have been a boon not only for students, but faculty as well, Koch says. In CLA, 254 faculty have taught seminars; 25 have taught more than one, and 9 more than two. “From what I’m told, faculty have applied to their other classes what they’ve learned teaching freshman seminars,” says Koch, “so they have an even broader impact than we might have thought.”
Ever since teaching one of the first CLA seminars, “How Babies Learn to Talk,” Jennifer Windsor, professor and chair of the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, has reflected on their value to faculty. “Their small size allows you to teach differently,” she says. “You know everyone’s name and more about each student. You have the ability to be flexible, to do what resonates best with the class. I love the sense of community it engenders.
“It can be a stretch to convey information from research to an 18-year-old student—for example, to break down theoretical models of language development. But I enjoy hearing a student say, ‘That’s cool, I hadn’t thought about that.’ Students in a seminar are more engaged and can feel how the topic relates to their life. It’s more about the big picture than the details. It’s igniting an interest.”
A head start
“It’s important for students to get this type of opportunity coming in, to nurture what it means to be a student, and to see the professor as a real person and a participant,” says Dara Strolovitch of the freshman seminar experience. Monica Luciana notes that today’s freshmen come in with more knowledge and assertiveness than before, and they expect more opportunities like freshman seminars. Fortunately, she and her colleagues are more than happy to oblige.
As for Alan Smith, he was frankly “astounded” by his students’ level of knowledge and intellectual sophistication. “They were mature, informed, and well prepared. It was a dream class to teach,” he says.