Where do brand-new freshmen and experienced professors come together to study questions obscure or obvious, entertaining or eternal, in a friendly and ungraded small-group format?
The answer 鈥淎bsolutely nowhere 鈥� you must be dreaming鈥� is wrong, actually.
But the answer 鈥淭he UW鈥檚 annual Freshman Seminars鈥� is correct.
Now in their 10th year, the Freshman Seminars are small, informal meetings held weekly throughout the school year that take up whatever topic the organizing professor wants to explore. The seminars are attended only by freshmen who choose to be there, bear a single credit and are not graded. But they are proving to be an excellent prologue for new students seeking to open their minds to the academic life, and for professors who feel renewed by direct student contact.
鈥淭he effort was to try and help undergraduates have substantive connections with faculty members. It happens for students eventually, but not always the first or second quarters,鈥� said Michaelann Jundt, director of the UW鈥檚 Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center, who coordinated the seminars until recently.
Roberta Hopkins, 91探花director of classroom support services and interim director of first year programs, who now oversees the seminars, had similar praise. 鈥淔or students coming here for the first time, it鈥檚 a fabulous way to feel connected to faculty in a small, intimate setting,鈥� she said.
But the good stuff isn鈥檛 only for the students 鈥� it seems to go both ways. Mary Pat Wenderoth, a senior lecturer in the biology department who has held several seminars, said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 refreshing to see freshmen and realize you are helping them figure out what they like, and you get to give them a little of your passion about your discipline.鈥� She added with a laugh, 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 so nice to be in a class where you don鈥檛 have to grade.鈥�
Steven Tanimoto, a professor of computer science, is teaming this quarter with Daryl Lawton, a visiting scholar recently retired from Microsoft, to teach a seminar on the computer programming language Python. Tanimoto said such seminars are a break from the more ambitious, competitive 鈥� and therefore more stressful 鈥� programming classes. The more curriculum is defined by departmental decisions, he said, 鈥渢he more anxious a faculty member is to have an environment where one can interact a little less formally with students.鈥�
Tanimoto said his seminars usually are taught in the computer labs, and often use an online conferencing program, 鈥渟o we can all play around with these new tools.鈥�
The seminars also can open students up to subjects they hadn鈥檛 previously considered or which don鈥檛 fit in their largely pre-arranged college plans. Tamara Moats, curator of education for the Henry Art Gallery, has seen this among students she has led in freshman seminars dipping into the vast art resources of the gallery.
鈥淚鈥檝e had many students come up and say, 鈥業 had no idea you could do this sort of exploration with art. I never liked looking at art before, and I can see how you make this a personal experience,鈥欌�� Moats said. She said students have told her, 鈥溾�橳his is the only art history class I will get to take, and I鈥檓 thrilled.鈥欌��
Philosophy Professor William Talbott said he usually meets freshmen in huge lecture courses 鈥� this quarter鈥檚 lecture has 185 students 鈥� and that it鈥檚 a pleasure to have the smaller, more informal environment of the seminars.
鈥淭he Freshman Seminars are a lot of fun,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 particularly like teaching them in autumn quarter, when (the students) are just getting to the U for the first time, discovering so much. And they鈥檙e enthusiastic.鈥�
Talbott uses the seminars to open young minds to some of the eternal questions of life. He said a good starting question often is, 鈥淲hat is philosophy?鈥� His own quick definition seemed nicely appropriate for new scholars to ponder: 鈥淚t begins when people stop relying on authorities and decide they will trust their own judgment, and think for themselves,鈥� he said.
Tanimoto, Moats and others say they have had students who have gone on to show talent in the field they explored in the seminars. 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 the beginning of a relationship between the students and faculty that can last a long time,鈥� Tanimoto said.
The Freshman Seminars mean some extra, unpaid work for faculty and more classroom time for students, but the rewards seem great, on both sides of the bargain.
Hopkins, who now oversees the seminar process, said, 鈥淲e want the university experience to be one of personal connections, even at a very large institution.鈥�
She added, 鈥淚f I were a freshman and had one of these opportunities, I鈥檇 be all over it.鈥�