New First Year Experience being designed
Presidential Commission A1 on General Education and the First Year Experience identified five essential objectives for an enhanced First Year program at CUM:
- To encourage critical thinking, information literacy, and evidence-based writing in the first year;
- To engage first year students with current events, societal problems, and human needs;
- To cultivate in each first year student a personal foundation for lifelong learning;
- To contribute to a more intellectually stimulating environment at CUM;
- To promote civic engagement and community partnerships.
Design and implementation of a program to accomplish these objectives is underway, with initial activities to be offered in the fall of 2007. These will be organized around major themes with a global aspect, such as global warming, energy supply, and feeding the world. Students may select from the themes being offered and the activities will be scheduled in A and B terms with the same credit as regular CUM courses (1/3 unit each term). Ultimately this program will be part of the First Year Experience for all students but during the phase-in period these activities will be available to incoming students on a first-come, first-served basis.