Greetings from Dean of the School of University Studies
Welcome to UI100/First Year Seminar.
UI100 made its debut in Fall 2000 Its goals are simple: to introduce new University students to the value of a liberal education and the goals and structure of the University Studies Program. Special emphasis is placed on building student skills in research methods, critical thinking, and communication. The intent of the people who designed this course was a practical one: to help make new students successful in meeting the academic demands they will face throughout their undergraduate years.
UI100 replaced an earlier introductory course which was called GS101: Creative and Critical Thinking. After conducting a review of that course, and after consulting students, faculty, and off-campus experts, a course review committee designed the new, theme-based UI100 course which we believe is much more successful than its predecessor in meeting student needs. The interdisciplinary theme approach and the new general syllabus designed for the First Year Seminar should assure students in all sections of the course that it will have strong academic and intellectual content, that a substantial and equitable amount of work will be required, and that the instructors who designed the themes would be highly motivated to make their sections of course interesting and useful.
Your instructors have invested a good deal of work in UI 100 prior to the Fall 2000 Semester, collaborating on the design of the course, proposing the interdisciplinary themes, and participating in faculty development workshops. As director of the course, I am proud of the initiative shown by my teaching colleagues in designing the themes and thankful for the support shown for the course by faculty, department chairpersons, and academic deans. Our experience has been that all of this planning results in a good experience for the important constituents, the students.
Your professors have designed course activities which will introduce you to interesting and useful facts, processes, and disputes arising from topics such The Manhattan Project, The American Dream, and Health Perspectives in the New Millennium. You will learn, under the guidance of a strong group of more than forty teacher-scholars, a good deal about your interdisciplinary theme topics.
What matters most particularly to me, however, as director of the course, is that all students develop strong skills in accessing information, thinking critically, and communicating effectively, and that they come to understand how the nine University Studies goals contribute to their success and well-being, both during their undergraduate years and throughout their lives, regardless of their majors or career objectives.
If you have questions or comments about the course or if you have suggestions for ways we could improve the home page, please e-mail me or call us at (573) 651-2092.
David Starrett, Dean of University Studies
