Will existing courses have to be set aside to free up teaching and financial resources to teach freshman seminars?

What happens if the number of faculty offering seminars dwindles after the first year?

Will students who can't get into seminars feel cheated?

Why do these seminars count for IH/STS?

Would freshman seminars also count for distributional requirments?

Why only freshmen?

Are freshmen really capable of participating in a "seminar" ?

Are all introductory courses equally suitable for freshman seminars?

What will be done with students whose majors don't leave any room for a freshman seminar?

What will happen to departments that do not wish to offer any seminars?

What should I do if I'm interested in offering a seminar?
 
 

Will existing courses have to be set aside to free up teaching and financial resources to teach freshman seminars?

NO.  The Deans are committed to providing the necessary resources to make it feasible for departments to offer freshman seminars without adversely impacting their other departmental offerings.   It may be that some departments will not be able to spare their full-time faculty, even if PTL replacements are provided.  That will be the department's decision.

It is also important to realize that existing courses can be offered as freshman seminars.   Thus a course that may have enrolled 30-40 (some of whom could be freshmen) as a regular class might be offered as a seminar to 20 freshman.   In this case, a portion of the students who would have enrolled in the regular class are still accomodated.   Freshman seminars, therefore, might easily fulfill part of a department's own program goals.

If the college is to mount enough seminars to offer to all incoming freshman, it cannot rely on begging, cajoling, and pleading as a means of recruiting faculty participants.  A freshman seminar committee will be formed to recruit and train faculty seminar leaders, and to organize and evaluate the program.   If sufficient faculty participation to staff the seminars does not materialize, the program will automatically be discontinued after three years.

Obviously, we can't predict the actual demand for voluntary freshmen seminars in advance.   The pilot program sets target for itself so that it will gear up to meet demand as quickly as possible.   In the first year, seminars should be available for 50-60% of the freshman who are not in the honor's college (Honors students will have their own seminars).  Altogether about 2/3 of freshman would have seminars available to them during AY2001-2002.

Freshman admissions letters include a list of seminars and a way to indicate preferences.  The Student Advisement staff  will try to match students to seminars as best they can.  Unfortunately, students sometimes find themselves shut out of classes.   This possibility exists here as well, though our goal will be to ultimately have seminars available to all students who want them.

Although the eligibility criteria for courses in the program are deliberately flexible, it is hoped that faculty will formulate their freshman seminars to fulfill the basic goals of IH and STS.   That is, these courses should involve the study of themes and issues of intellectual history or issues of the relationship of science and technology to society.    Freshman seminars at many schools cover topics that are very similar to those associated with IH/STS.    Using freshman seminars as an IH/STS alternative also reduces the demand for the traditional IH/STS classes. It is hoped that IH/STS may be restructured into a more successful size and format.

As the program is presently envisioned, freshmen (and honors) seminars could be used to satisfy a student's IH/STS requirement OR one of the college's general distribution requirements, but not both.   Departments would determine for themselves what credit, in any, would be given toward the major for freshman seminars.

Freshman seminars potentially have the most impact when they occur at the beginning of a student's college career.   The freshman seminar program  is also intended to enhance the attractiveness of attending Rutgers for 4 years rather than transferring in after community college.   In this sense, it is a perk for freshmen.   It is not inconceivable that additional seminars could be developed at a later date for transfer students.   However, it is not anticipated as a part of the pilot program.

Apparently, the word "seminar" has different meanings to different members of the faculty.   Many of us have experience with graduate seminars and senior seminars.   In those cases, students with substantial background in an academic field meet to discuss some subject matter at an advanced level.   Obviously, freshmen cannot be expected to bring prior knowledge and experience in a subject area to a seminar.  By definition, freshmen are beginners with minimal academic background.

A freshman seminar therefore has a different purpose from an advanced seminar and the expectations of student participants is much different.   A freshman seminar provides a small learning community in which new college students become acquainted with basic principles of intellectual analysis and interpretation.   A full-time faculty member guides them in reading and reflecting on texts in an interactive setting that exposes them to multiple points of view.   They gain their first experiences in college-level academic writing and develop confidence in presenting their own ideas to a group.

No.  Some subjects will be easier to teach in a freshman seminar format than others.  Certain courses may be totally inappropriate for this purpose.   Every department will have to determine for itself which, if any, courses it is willing to offer as freshman seminars.

It appears that some students, particularly in the sciences, may have difficulty scheduling a freshman seminar because of other required courses.   Although the goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide the seminar experience in a student's first year at Rutgers, the freshman seminar committee will need to evaluate how freshman seminars fit in with other required courses students in different departments may need to take.   No student would be required to take a freshman seminar under the pilot program.   If the program is instituted for all students at a later date,  it may be necessary for the committee to grant certain students permission to register for a seminar in their sophomore year.

Nothing.   There is no obligation to participate.   This is a purely voluntary program.

Individual faculty members wishing to offer freshman seminars should discuss this possibility with their departmental chairs when schedules for future semesters are being constructed.   All departments intending to offer Freshman Seminars should contact the Director of the Freshman Seminar Program for further information.