Students dispute need for mandatory freshman seminar

She decided on her major, found her adviser and met her boyfriend in her freshman seminar, said Caroline Casagrande, Undergraduate Student Government senator.

The University Faculty Senate's new General Education Recommendation No. 1, which mandates that all University freshmen take a seminar starting Summer Session 1999, makes the University's ever-growing campuses seem smaller, Casagrande (junior-international politics) said.

- Ingrid Blood, a member of the general education implementation committee

"I really think this is just moving in the right direction, to getting professors back to being accessible to students," Casagrande said.

The recommendation states each college must develop its own seminar, which may vary from one to three credits. The legislation intends to provide students with an academic discussion class early in their college careers, and inform them of available University resources, said Spiro Stefanou, the assistant director of Schreyer Institute.

Because of the vagueness in the recommendation, and the mandatory requirement, USG Academic Assembly member Emily Freeman said she does not think the freshman seminars will really serve students.

Like Casagrande, Freeman (sophomore-international politics) said she took a seminar her first year and still maintains close contact with her classmates and professor. She said she attended a Christmas party at her professor's home.

"If colleges are going to offer a freshman seminar that sounds like it'll be fun and beneficial then students will want to take it," she said.

If the seminars are optional, some students would elect out of the them, missing an opportunity to receive intimate academic attention within their first three semesters of study, said Ingrid Blood, a member of the general education implementation committee.

Faculty committees have researched general education for the past two years, Blood said. The implementation of the seminars will require additional resources, she added. There are no official releases on intended new faculty hires or budget increases to allow colleges to provide for the class increases.

A faculty senate report, however, said the seminars will require an "upper-limit indicator" of $900,000.

"When you come to a new situation, how do you know whether it's going to help you or not?" Blood said. "There's been enough research from other universities that have found that (freshman seminars are) a beneficial component of undergraduate education."