First Year Experience

First Year Seminar (FYS) courses apply “seminar-style” teaching to a learning community setting that is focused around an academic topic. The FYS course provides an intellectual and social transition into the university under the guidance of faculty/staff instructors in a small classroom environment of 20 or fewer students.

In this small class environment, the FYS course encourages motivated students to actively participate in their learning through critical inquiry; by listening and contributing to class discussion; in reading broadly from research sources and writing original works.

The specific topic of each seminar course is based on research or outside interests of the particular instructor, current events, or popular culture. While each course will address a different topic, all FYS courses will focus on several common student learning outcomes. These one-credit courses will be open only to first-year freshmen from all majors and colleges.