Princeton Freshman Seminars Supply Model

Lawrence Rosen, chair of Princeton's anthropology department, was recently at a meeting with the university's other department chairs, when the president asked how many had taught a freshman seminar.

"30 of 42 hands went up enthusiastically," he says.

Along with the majority of department heads, some of Princeton's most famous faculty members have taught in the freshman seminar program, including Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, recent Harvard presidential candidate Amy Guttman '71 and the controversial ethicist and philosopher Peter Singer.

Nearly two-thirds of Princeton's freshman seminars this year are being taught by ladder faculty--tenured and assistant professors.

In contrast, just over one third of Harvard's freshman seminars are being taught this year by ladder faculty.

While over half of Harvard's freshman seminars are taught by lecturers (non tenured, non tenure track faculty) this year, Princeton has kept that number down to under a quarter of its offerings.

And though Princeton's freshman seminar program program is young, in just over a decade it has blossomed from 10 offerings to 66 this year. Harvard's version of the freshman seminar program began in 1959, but only offered 36 seminars this year.

How Does Princeton Do It?

"We make [faculty] offers they can't refuse," jokes John V. Fleming, co-director of the freshman seminar program at Princeton and professor of English and Comparative Literature.

But he is only half-joking. Princeton's program is structured financially so that the department of the professor who is offering the seminar does not have to entirely foot the bill for the seminar.

Roughly half of Princeton's seminars are funced by endowments and departments are reimbursed for the professor's teaching time out of those funds, Howard "Hank" N. Dobin, co-director of the freshman seminar program and associate dean of the college notes.

The seminars that are not endowed are funded via donations from departments in faculty teaching time, Dobin says.

Some of the endowment funds can also be used to help develop a course over the summer, or subsidize activities like dinners and field trips.

"There'e nothing memorable about a meal at my house. But for [freshman]there is," Rosen says.

And the extra funds let professors like George L. McLendon, chair of the chemistry department add special components to their seminars.

McLendon had a senior lecturer run a lab for students in his seminar, "The Galvanization of Biology: Metal Ions and Life," and the freshman seminar program paid for the lecturer's time.

"I wouldn't have added a lab component if I hadn't had that resource available," he says.

And for a small department like Rosen's, with around ten faculty members, offering a seminar can result in added offerings within the department.

A faculty member teaching a seminar will teach one less departmental course. At Princeton, the department is compensated for the faculty member's time, and can hire a visiting professor to teach a course not normally offered.

"We had someone come in to teach human evolution last year," Rosen says. "At the time there was no one in the department who specialized in human evolution."

A Positive Attitude

Many say the combination of extensive funding and the university's intellectual committment to the program makes freshman seminars central to a Princeton educatiuon.

Dobin says that roughly 75 percent of a given class's bachelor of arts candidates have taken a freshman seminar.

And McLendon says the seminars' format is specifically geared to freshman.

"It's important that we have [seminars] at all levels and not have it be some special experience for graduating seniors," McLendon says.

And faculty say that they feel an institutional responsibility to teach seminars.

"The ethos of the place is that no matter how distinguished you are you teach undergraduates," Dobin says. "It may be a different culture than

Harvard."

Rosen notes that even senior faculty take on sections for lecture courses.

"There is something of a tradition," he says. "You have people like John Fleming and Toni Morrison committed to teaching when they could be home writing another book."

Students Teaching Faculty

From an intellectual standpoint, teaching a freshman seminar may be beneficial to faculty members, forcing them to return to the basics of their academic discipline, while allowing them to pursue their personal interests in the field.

Rosen compares his desire to teach freshman with military sergeants who always want the 18-year-old recruits because of their enthusiasm.

"Freshman are wonderful because they don't buy any of your assumptions," Rosen says. "They don't know the established rhetoric of the discipline."

And freshman seminars may be a forum to develop new classes that might later be offered in the department.

"Many professors have a course up their sleeve that they haven't quite gotten the nerve to do," Rosen says.

And Fleming says the seminars often generate specific interest in a given discipline, providing incentives for departments to offer first rate seminars.

"The English department is getting a lot out of [seminars]," he says. "We're generating an interest in literary topics."

With a small number of students--roughly 15--and a free flowing seminar format, professors say they relish the opportunity to teach a freshman seminar.

Fleming calls the seminars "luxurious treatment," not only for students, but for professors as well.

"This is very expensive," he says. "You take a full-time professor and put them with 15 students and it might be half their course load."

Just For Freshmen

Being up close and personal with a full time faculty member can be a definative academic experience for a freshman, professors at Princeton say.

"It does make freshman feel from the get go that whatever happens with the rest of their college career, they had that intellectual experience," Rosen says.

And even if students do not end up following the lead of their seminar into a given discipline, the academic experience is a beneficial one.

"Most students will not become science majors, but many will become influential in politics or another area where that knowledge will be helpful,"

McLendon says, noting a student who is now an art history major but was a major contributer in his chemistry seminar.

Ultimately, it is the quality of the teaching--not whether the professor has tenure or not--that makes a seminar great, Fleming says.

"I'm not looking only for eminent professors," he says. "There are some famous people who couldn't teach their way out of a wet paper bag."

And At Harvard?

McLendon says he thinks that Harvard can dramatically improve its freshman seminar program, if it commits more faculty and funds to the initiative.

"Your new president has said undergraduate education is a priority. I'm sure he'll have an opportunity to show that," he says, noting that the freshman seminar program would be an ideal place to start.

"I do think that an important part of [the freshman seminar program] is to have your very best professors teaching," Fleming says.

And how to entice those famous professors into teaching freshman?

"Go ask them. These people are college professors; they ought to be interested in teaching freshman," Fleming says.