By Catherine Collins
A pilot program for a writing seminar for incoming freshmen will begin in the fall of 2012.
Provost Katherine Conway-Turner said that she hopes the seminar will “provide an opportunity in the first semester for students to develop habits that will enrich their academic experience.”
The seminar will be an optional class offered in the fall semester for incoming freshmen. Professors will be choosing the topics for the seminar courses, which will be writing-intensive and are intended to improve the overall literacy and writing skills of freshmen.
“I hope students will be better prepared to think/read critically, write effectively, engage in appropriate research, and be intellectually ignited from the beginning of their Hood experience,” Conway-Turner said.
The faculty voted for the seminar pilot at December’s faculty meeting, with 47 for and 24 against. The pilot will be no more than three years. Starting in late January, a faculty committee will be established to oversee the pilot.
Faculty members will teach the freshman seminar either as part of their normal teaching load or as an additional course. If it is additional, there will be a stipend provided to the professor.
The idea of a freshman seminar was introduced last fall as part of a proposed revision of the core curriculum. The initial proposed seminar would have been mandatory for all incoming freshmen.
“There were concerns articulated by the faculty regarding the development and implementation of this as a requirement, so offering it as a pilot allows the faculty to see how it would work before a decision is made to make it a requirement,” Conway-Turner said.
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