Fall may be the season of decay, but this fall may bring new life to UNIV1000.
Several changes will be made to UNIV1000, an introductory university class all freshman are required to take, before the course is offered again in the fall.
According to Leanne Boucher, associate professor of psychology and coordinator of the faculty team that plans the UNIV class, these changes will include aligning coursework across classes and introducing an overarching theme of identity and specific themes that relate to the professional strengths of the instructors, like wellness, neuroscience, music and marine science.
“I heard a lot of the negative constructive criticism that was leveled and leveled fairly at the course, and that’s why we’re changing it,” Boucher said. “There was a lot of diversity across sections, and diversity not in a good way…so we’re looking to rectify that.”
On Feb. 8, the Undergraduate Student Government Association (SGA) passed a resolution to “continue to work with all freshman students and staff to get UNIV1000 prepared for next school year.”
Freshman Council member and freshman theatre and legal studies major Jarod Harrington, who headed up the SGA legislation, said that the legislation was designed to ask for support from SGA to help faculty make the UNIV class better.
“There was such negative feedback from students and even some faculty who didn’t like the class,” he said.
Harrington said that he personally liked his UNIV class, but found that a lot of other students didn’t. After speaking to students taking the class, he said he discovered that all of the courses were completely different classes. In one class, students were required to keep a Tumblr blog, in another students were writing essays every day, and in other classes students visited different parts of campus, according to Harrington.
To improve the course, Harrington suggested reducing the class from 16 weeks to eight weeks and reducing the number of credits from three to one or two.
“There’s only so much you can learn about how to be a freshman,” he said. “A lot of us feel like 16 weeks is just unnecessary, and all the information you need…you can get the full experience in eight weeks.”
Nicole Proto, freshman nursing major and freshman senator for SGA, said that many students spoke to her about their frustrations with the inconsistencies in the different classes.
“A lot of people didn’t look forward to it. They hated waking up and going to that class. They didn’t connect with their teacher,” she explained.
Proto said that she recommends keeping the class at 16 weeks and having students learn by visiting different resources on campus and writing about them, like she did in her UNIV class.
Boucher said, “Since this was the first time this class was taught, there’s probably more stuff that needs to be adjusted than usual, but there’s really nothing new about this process. It’s a new class – we’re changing stuff, we’re keeping stuff that worked and we’re getting rid of stuff that didn’t.”
According to Boucher, students won’t realize how much this course has helped them until later on during their time at NSU.
“A lot of students go through their high school careers with one mindset and they come to college and it’s really difficult…socially, academically, emotionally,” she said. “So one of the purposes of this course…is to help students transition.”
