The First Year Experience class required of all Baker University freshmen and transfer students might have a new face in the fall.
Several proposed changes to the program may come into effect during the 2007-2008 academic year, pending approval.
Erin Joyce, former director of the FYE program, said the changes are being considered by faculty to increase the amount of social and academic support offered to first-year students.
“The big change would be moving it to a full-semester class,” she said. “It would be a two-credit class that you attend twice a week. We want to lengthen it to build that sense of community. It’s important because students need support and contact.”
Joyce also described proposed changes in the academic rigor of the program, saying that faculty members were well aware that many students do not take the course seriously.
“We want to add more academic content and more of a theme,” she said. “If we want to make it less of a perceived blow-off, we need to make it more intellectual and engaging.”
FYE Director Lisa Johnston elaborated on the idea of themed classes, a proposal that would increase the level of discussion and critical thinking involved in the course.
“In (lengthening the course), what we also are considering doing is combining the current content, which is very much in the vein of orienting students to college, supporting them and giving them the information they need, keeping that but adding to it an academic seminar topic. Each of the sections under the proposal would have a topic associated with it that the faculty would choose. It’s designed to be something that hopefully would be interesting to faculty and students.”
Senior Megan Brokaw, an FYE leader during the fall 2006 semester, saw firsthand the benefits and drawbacks of the program.
“It’s beneficial to freshmen as a social outlet,” she said. “You get to know a professor and an older mentor who can answer your questions. I don’t know how I feel about making it a full-semester class because on the one hand, it’s consistent support and a good place to talk about midterms and planning for the next semester, but at the same time, I know when I took it as a freshman, it could get really repetitious and boring. There would definitely need to be structural changes to make it more upbeat and interactive.”
The Educational Programs and Curriculums Committee will review the proposed changes at the end of March, and Faculty Senate will review them in April or May. Student leader interviews for the FYE program have been postponed until April.