Your first semester on the Twin Cities campus could soon come with one more required course. Provost Gretchen Ritter told the Board of Regents about a proposal that would require every new Twin Cities student to take a first-year experience course.
Ritter said the plan came from the office of the vice provost for undergraduate education. Students wouldn't all take the same class. They would choose from a set of formats. One is a 3-credit seminar that comes with a peer-mentor component.
In this clip the provost explains the first-year experience proposal to regents and goes through the course formats new students could pick from.10/08
Ritter presented a proposal, not a finished policy.
The idea isn't completely new to campus. A campuswide requirement would give every new student the same starting point. If it moves forward, deans and faculty will have to work out the scheduling: guaranteeing a seat in a small seminar for every first-year student is a big job on a campus this size.
For now it's an early proposal.
