The First-Year Seminar (FYS) is a hallmark of the curriculum at Gettysburg College and is intended to defeat one's notion of a typical college learning experience-a large lecture-based survey course for first-year students and intimate seminars with senior faculty reserved only for advanced students committed to a major. The FYS brings the benefits of a seminar to students beginning their college career.

Participation by first-year students in the Seminars is not required, but the students are offered a large array of Seminars of broad scope so that nearly all students who request a Seminar are able to enroll. These distinct and numbered courses are seminars in that they have small enrollments, focus on special or rather narrow topics, and emphasize active and collaborative learning. They are designed to help entering students make the transition to college-level learning by stressing fundamental learning skills-in particular, writing, discussion, quantitative reasoning, and basic research methodology. The environment for learning is complemented by out-of-classroom experiences. The Seminars may permit students to satisfy a curricular objective, they may serve as an alternative introduction to the methods and problems of a discipline and count toward a major, or they may be interdisciplinary in scope. 

Opportunities for Students: Entering students will be invited to choose from a collection of First-Year Seminars described in a FYS brochure. (Presidential Scholars are given first choice of Seminars; other students are enrolled on a first-come, first-served basis.) While a particular Seminar will have specific, desired outcomes, FYSs generally demonstrate the value of the liberal arts by demonstrating how the liberated mind focuses on an area of intellectual interest. And because the participants in each Seminar are likely to be housed together, first-year students will naturally find a means of blending their academic and social realms.

Opportunities for Faculty: Individual faculty and whole departments or programs find certain advantages in offering First-Year Seminars. For a faculty member, her or his teaching situation should be nearly optimal: the professor designs a course that focuses on a special topic of deep intellectual interest; the course's enrollment will be small enough (a maximum of sixteen students) to permit the professor to offer individualized attention to students and to introduce active-learning, collaborative learning, and special group projects; and, as the students who enroll are self-selected by their interest in the topic, the professor can assume her or his students have a curiosity about the topic. In addition, the professor will have the benefit of special funding for meals, speakers, and field trips (each instructor of a Seminar in Fall 2008 will be eligible for $750 to support social and academic activities). Further, the professor may request a Student Associate for the Seminar if the Associate's assignments meet established guidelines. Finally, the Seminars allow for creative cross-course linkages, such as joint meetings and events, the "cluster" concept, and links between First-Year Seminars and service-learning experiences or other courses.

Those faculty members who teach a Seminar will have specialized services available to them in the planning and execution of their courses. Those Seminars where writing is emphasized will have special support from the Writing Center, including the opportunity for workshop training and assistance. Some Seminars may allow a student to fulfill the first-year writing requirement (contact the Vice Provost to discuss this possibility). Instructional Technology will provide assistance to those professors who have ideas about special uses of technology-such as web projects or bibliographic-search education. Professors may also work with reference librarians to design assignments that introduce students to library resources in ways that are directly linked to the course content and assignments.

Departments and programs may find the FYSs useful as alternatives to existing courses that meet the curricular multiple-inquiries goal. Or FYSs may provide an alternative course toward the major or even an innovative introduction to the major. Indeed, in the long run, it is likely that the successful FYS will recruit majors by confirming or converting students.

The Office of the Provost is committed to providing staffing assistance for these courses. This means that a priority will be given in the assignment of adjunct sections to departments that need replacements for full-time faculty teaching an FYS.

How to Propose a First-Year Seminar

Draft your FYS proposal in accordance with the Guidelines and Format instructions below. Once you have gained the endorsement of your department chair or program coordinator, send the proposal to the Vice Provost. He will work with you from that point to design a Seminar that meets programmatic guidelines and to secure the necessary APPC approval(s).

Guidelines for a First-Year Seminar

The proposed Seminar must:

• serve the needs of first-year students by exercising teaching skills-particularly writing, quantitative reasoning, speech, research methods, etc.-and by serving as a gateway to college-level academic work;
• be designed for a seminar format with twelve to sixteen students;
• be focused on a relatively narrow topic-First-Year Seminars are not designed to replace traditional survey courses;
• have an appealing title and a provocative description; and
• actively involve students in the learning process.

In addition, the proposed Seminar may:

• be multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or provide an introduction to disciplinary study;
• enable students to achieve a curricular goal-that is,
  • the multiple inquiry goal (arts, humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences)
  • first-year writing requirement for the effective communication goal
  • the local and global citizenship goal as a course addressing cultural diversity, or science, technology, and society
  • the integrative thinking goal, as a quantitative, inductive, or deductive reasoning course, half of a cluster, or as an interdisciplinary course
  • count toward a major or minor course of study; and
  • be connected to other courses with related subject matter, sharing guest speakers, field trips, and other activities.

Format for First-Year-Seminar Proposals

Your proposal must contain:

• the Seminar title and a zesty, one-paragraph description of the proposed Seminar's content (for the FYS brochure and College Catalogue listing);
• a brief explanation of how the Seminar fits the above guidelines, focusing on how the Seminar will serve the needs of first-year students;
• an indication of which, if any, curricular goals the proposed Seminar will achieve and/or a statement describing how the Seminar will fit into a major and/or be connected to other courses (proposed Seminars put forth to reach any of the College's fundamental curricular goals will require approval by the APPC);
• a tentative reading list (including, where appropriate, films or videos);
• a preliminary account of Seminar requirements for academic credit;
• an explanation of the role and functions to be assigned to a Student Associate if one is requested; and
• the signature endorsement of the department chair or program coordinator

JCW/pmc

09/29/07