Welcome to the FYSP website for faculty!

In Spring 2000, the College of Arts and Sciences faculty endorsed the creation of seminars from across the curriculum for all first-year students. The objective of the First-Year Seminar Program (FYSP) is to focus students on the exciting and challenging process of becoming thoughtful agents of their own education. These seminars present a unique opportunity for students to test their ideas, learn from others, and get to know a faculty member well.

One of the most interesting goals of this Program is to provide students with an introduction to liberal arts learning. The seminars are intended to help students reflect upon basic issues such as the personal value and social relevance of a liberal arts education and what it means to be a part of a liberal arts community of learning. For faculty it is a chance to think about how the strands of knowledge of our fields intertwine with each other or how they relate to what students often describe as “the big picture.” As a result, it is an opportunity for us to model what we expect from our students: to weave these strands of knowledge together and bind them to their lives as professionals and citizens. Our faculty bring a diverse and insightful range of perspectives to this challenge. (Click the "FYSP Student Page" button on the left for current course descriptions.)

Extensive resources are available to faculty who participate in this program. The buttons on the left will lead you to the general information sheet on the First-Year Seminar Program and an application for curriculum development grants for developing or revising a course for the Program. November 20, 2007 is the deadline for fellowship applications for Fall 2008 and Fall 2009 seminars. Stipends are available for all faculty participants in a summer workshop on teaching a first-year seminar.

First-Year Seminar Program Committee:

Adrian Bautista, Office of Dean of Students
Pat Day, Professor of English and Cinema Studies
Bob Geitz, Associate Professor of Computer Science
Meredith Raimondo, Assistant Professor of Comparative American Studies
Lynne Biauchi, Associate Dean
Charles McGuire, Associate Professor of Musicology
Gina Perez, Associate Professor of Comparative American Studies
Paula Richman, Professor of Religion

Site by: Andi Baruffi
Updated 10/12/07 by Robert Chester