|
A List
5/14/07
CONFERENCE MARKS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF SLU'S FIRST-YEAR PROGRAM
CANTON - How can colleges and universities help students make the difficult transition
from high school to higher education? It's a question more and more schools are
grappling with, but it's one that St. Lawrence University has been successfully
dealing with for 20 years.
From June 6 through 8, educators from around the country will gather on
campus for a conference examining "First-Year Programs and Liberal Arts:
Best Practices and New Thinking." The event marks the 20th anniversary of
St. Lawrence's First-Year Program (FYP), recognized throughout the country
as among the best.
In the mid-1980's a group of University students began an "intentional
learning community," living together in a residence hall and taking a seminar
course together, on a topic of mutual interest. What began as East College
(because they met and lived in the building then called East Hall) has grown
and developed into the First-Year Program, in which all first-year students
have participated since 1987. It has become a model for introducing new
students to the academic experience of the liberal arts cited by the
Carnegie Foundation for Excellence in Teaching as "one of the most well-defined
and creative in the country."
Acclaim for the program has come from a number of quarters, including in the
2003 book College Rankings: The Art of Getting a Quality Education in the 21st
Century, by Paul Boyer. Associate Dean
of the First Year and Dana Professor of Economics Steven Horwitz was quoted
in that book, discussing St. Lawrence's program and how it
exemplifies some of the qualities that the author believes define the best educational
experiences.
The program has four components: students in each "college" live together in an
intentional community; they take a team-taught, interdisciplinary course together;
attention is given to assisting students in developing written and oral
communication skills, plus research skills; and advising by program faculty
is emphasized.
Horwitz says, "Other programs that are somewhat similar do not have all four
of these elements, or else they do not have them for all first-year students."
In their first semester, students live in one of the program's residential
colleges with all of the other students enrolled in their FYP course; the exact
number of colleges varies somewhat from year to year, depending upon the size
of the class, but is typically around 20. This interdisciplinary, team-taught
course focuses on a topic of broad interest, and is one of the four courses
that first-year students take in the fall. FYP courses help students develop
the writing, speaking and research skills that they will need during and
after college. A student's academic advisor is one of the faculty members
in his/her college. Additionally, the residential staff and faculty work
together in building a community in which students can develop friendships
and succeed academically.
In the spring semester, students continue to work on developing their
communication skills by enrolling in a First-Year Seminar. Although the
seminars are not residentially based, they are small, allowing students to
build close relationships with another group of students and with another
faculty member. Students who wish to enroll in the seminar taught by their
Fall FYP seminar instructor/advisor are guaranteed a spot in this seminar.
The spring courses cover a wide range of topics, whether through
interdisciplinary or disciplinary study.
Hortwitz says, "Students are engaged, academically and as part of a community
with others, from the very beginning. They have a link to a faculty mentor
right from the start. We are seeing that having experienced the program,
students feel that they are ready for the academic work that awaits them
through the rest of their time here. More and more, they're seeking opportunities
to keep living together as a group, and they are finding ways to stay connected
to the academic topics addressed in their first-year college. And that's exactly
what we always wanted to happen."
The conference has been organized by Horwitz with colleagues from
St. Lawrence, Skidmore College and Wesleyan University. Faculty and staff
teams from Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Trinity, Union, Middlebury, Wheaton, Mount
Holyoke and others will be showcasing the best practices of their first-year
programs.
-30-
Academic Programs
|
