After years of planning as part of President Ben Ladner's 15-Point Plan to improve the school, AU will begin its University College program for freshmen this fall.
The program will feature seven four-credit pilot classes that will be available for General Education requirements. They will be taught seminar-style, with a maximum of 20 students, according to professor W. Joseph Campbell of the School of Communication. Students involved will live together on three floors of McDowell Hall and four floors of Anderson Hall. Only admitted freshmen are invited to the program.
Campbell will teach Understanding Mass Media in his McDowell Hall office.
The program will also include a program associate, an upperclassman assigned to live with the University College freshmen.
"The program associate is an upperclassman the professor selects," said Eric Ratner, resident director of McDowell Hall. "Usually it's someone the professor is familiar with and was strong academically in the course."
According to Ratner, the program associate helps facilitate the out-of-classroom experience.
"I don't know, I think that alienates the freshmen and keeps them from mixing with other people by keeping them on the same floor and putting them in the same classes," said Cait Callahan, a current freshman in the School of Public Affairs.
Campbell said he plans to help the students "gain a profound and sustained engagement with D.C." The class will be taught as a block two and a half hours long, and it will allow students to visit various D.C. locations.
He plans to visit an embassy as well as the Library of Congress with his class, he said.
"I also would like to visit Freedom Park and show my students the journalist's memorial there to show them that the profession is not just fun and games and there are many hazards," Campbell added.
In addition to Understanding Mass Media, McDowell Hall will house students in the Western Legal Traditions class, taught by David Fagelson, a professor in SPA. Professor Steven Taylor, also in SPA, will teach Politics in the U.S.
Ratner said he believes the program will be a unique experience.
"One-third of McDowell Hall will be freshmen. ... It will be a great opportunity," he said.
Campbell said he is looking forward to the program succeeding as it has in other schools.
"We really hope to hit the ground running with this program," Campbell said. "A lot of people hope it will be a success, and it has been done in different degrees at other schools."
The University of Maryland University College program was created in fall 1999. The number of students has grown 81 percent over the past five years, according to the school's University College web site, www.umuc.edu.
Andrew Yonki, a freshman in SPA, said that the program will be "an interesting experiment."
"It provides an opportunity to meet people and basically force them to get along, but it could have a downside in that it could be really easy to get sick of your floormates or classmates," Yonki said.
According to Rachelle Wilson, a senior in the School of International Service, "it will be good to have freshmen live among upperclassmen."
"It will be good for them to meet people through programs other than orientation or [Freshman Service Experience], although it seems weird that they are having classes in the dorm buildings," Wilson said.
