In the 2008 “America’s Best Colleges” online report by U.S. News & World Report, Freshman Focus was listed among “Academic Programs to Look For” in the category of “Learning Communities.” Joining the young WSU program on the list were programs from 35 other public and private universities including Duke, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan State, Princeton, Stanford, Missouri, Yale, and the University of Washington.
“We are proud that our Freshman Focus was selected to be among such a distinguished cadre of peers,” said Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Mary F. Wack. “It shows that our program is gaining nationwide recognition for its excellence in delivering a world-class academic experience to our newest students.”
The U.S.News & World Report listing said the “Academic Programs to Look For” section is devoted to schools “with outstanding examples of academic programs that are believed to lead to student success.” The learning communities category within that is described as where “students typically take two or more linked courses as a group and get to know one another and their professors especially well. The idea is to keep the discussions going after class.” At WSU, that is the Freshman Focus program.
It is designed so that freshmen, who live together on certain floors of residence halls, also typically take two general education courses together. Their professors in those “linked” courses work together so that topics taught in a world civilizations course are also discussed in the partner course, say, a fine arts or science course. Also this year, more University staff has joined the Freshman Focus effort, including instructional librarians, professional academic advisors, and tutors from the University’s Writing Center.
“Freshman Focus, by its very nature, engenders academic collaboration and partnerships between students, faculty, and staff. Students discuss important topics in class as well as where they live. By design, this helps them become part of the overall WSU learning community from their first days at college,” Wack said.
In fall 2007, more than 2,000 freshmen in 15 residence halls taking 20 courses this fall are part of Freshman Focus. Thirty-nine faculty members, 11 residence hall directors and about 100 resident advisor staff plus numerous librarians, advisors, and writing tutors round out the teams.
Karen Weathermon, WSU Learning Communities director, complemented the students, faculty, and staff from the two previous Freshman Focus years for bringing the program to national attention.
“From the start, some of WSU’s finest teachers have been eager participants in and supporters of Freshman Focus,” she said. “Their enthusiasm and willingness to make the program the best it can be has caught on. Students signing up for residence halls this fall were eager to join a Freshman Focus living-learning community. The word must be spreading that something interesting, fun, and rewarding is happening in the first-year learning experience at WSU.”
“Credit for the national recognition belongs to the outstanding faculty and staffincluding those in residence halls–that make Freshman Focus such an exceptional academic experience for our undergraduates.”
Freshman Focus embraced two new projects that debuted this fall. A Freshman Focus “global living-learning community” welcomed students interested in pairing a world civilizations course with a political science course. Those 32 students are focusing their course research on development efforts in Malawi, one of the poorest African nations. The students will use technology in their special Coman Hall lounge in Pullman to stay in touch with people in Malawi, including members of a WSU partner program there. The opportunity exists for some of the students to visit and study abroad in Malawi as early as this coming summer.
Freshman Focus students are also among WSU’s first-year students who are participating in the University’s inaugural “common reading.” More than 3,000 students received the same book, “Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It” and are studying aspects of the epidemicfrom economics to virology–across many freshman courses.
For more information on Freshman Focus at WSU, contact Weathermon at 509-335-5488, or by email at kweathermon@wsu.edu.
