Defiance College - Oraculum Yearbook (Defiance, OH)

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do during the Winter Term. lnitially, a general meeting was used to explain the concept of the Winter Term, after which the students were asked for suggestions. Once the original suggestions were collected into groups, six large section meetings were used to bring together those stu- dents who were interested in the same general area. ln these section meetings, the students gave some form to the suggested topics which they thought were best suited to a Winter Term. Finally, a list of specific freshman-created topics was published, and a third meeting was arranged with each student attending the meeting of greatest interest to him. During this meeting, the students continued developing the possible ideas related to the topic, dealing with such matters as sub-themes, re- sources, format, possible field trips, etc. When the freshmen registered in mid November each specified three choices. The final list of Fresh- man studies was selected through student interest. After this final list of studies was established, faculty members were invited to join groups of interest to them. The faculty member serves as a resource person during January, giving suggestions when it is appropriate. But the main responsibility for a suc- cessful Freshman program rests squarely on the shoulders of the Fresh- man Class. ln order to help encourage success, two modifications were made over last year. First, the program of student-generated studies no longer includes sophomores. It is believed there will be stronger group cohesion if the Freshmen work without the sophomores. Second, this year the participants in the student-generated part of the Winter Term were free to move from one group to another. Last year the groups were kept intact, this year the student moved to a topic of greatest interest. lt has sometimes been charged that the content of the Freshman Program seems strange in a College setting, but we are convinced the program has real merit. One must understand, however, that it stresses goals different from those sought in the regular semesters. Instead of emphasizing content, the Freshman Program is directed toward process-it is hoped that through their freshman Winter Term experience the students will begin to understand what is required to organize an academic study around any given topic. Once the students comprehend the process of organization and realize the procedures one can use in order to collect and analyze data, they will be in a much better position to take an active part in their own education-not only through independent work, but also within regular classes.

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