Freshman Seminar Offerings Doubled

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will offer over 62 freshman seminars in the next academic year, nearly twice as many as the 33 taught this year.

Nearly two thirds of the seminars will be taught by members of the faculty, as compared to a third of them this year, with senior lecturers teaching the others.

The increase comes on the heels of a report by Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan G. Pedersen ’81-’82 and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Jeffrey Wolcowitz this fall that urged an increase in the number of seminars offered to first-years.

This fall, about 700 first-years applied for spots in the Freshman Seminar program but the program could accommodate only 230 students. And according to Pedersen, the Freshman Seminar program has shrunk almost by half since the 1980s.

The report urged structural changes to the program as well—such as allowing seminars to count for concentration or core credit—and Pedersen discussed the possibility of such changes at a faculty meeting yesterday, but no structural changes have been made for the coming year.

However, Pedersen personally wrote to departments asking faculty to teach more seminars.

The memo described the benefits of increasing the number of seminars, and asked that departments discuss it at a departmental meeting, she said.

“We decided that we would see if through exhortation and goodwill we could grow the program,” she said.

The increases came largely in the humanities—including six new seminars given by members of the Department of English and American Languages and Literatures.

“Some departments made commitments to [make those increases], but others felt they were too short-staffed to be able to cover their curriculum and offer more seminars,” Pedersen said.

Pedersen said that the Administration will continue to talk during the summer to investigate more formal ways of expanding the Freshman Seminar program, including exploring possible connections between the Core Curriculum and the Freshman Seminar program.

“We’re expanding the program incrementally so that we can see if there is demand for it,” Pedersen said.

Yesterday’s Faculty meeting—the last of the year except for the June degree meeting—was also President Neil L. Rudenstine’s last, and Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles bade Rudenstine farewell.

“On behalf of the Faculty, I want to thank you for an uplifting decade,” Knowles said.

The Faculty gave Rudenstine a standing ovation.

Rudenstine applauded the Faculty in return.

“It has been much more than a privilege to share these 10 years with you,” Rudenstine said. “I have been guided and informed, advised and helped by all of you in allowing this institution to grow intrinsically stronger and healthier.”

“And we are all aware of the need to make it even better. I applaud you,” he concluded.

—Crimson staff writer Benjamin P. Solomon-Schwartz can be reached at bsolomon@fas.harvard.edu.

—Crimson staff writer Juliet J. Chung contributed to the reporting of this article.