Do freshman seminars bring students and faculty closer together?

Every spring, amidst an inundation of matriculation forms and paperwork, incoming freshmen find in their mail a booklet of freshmen seminars. As they ponder the stimulating topics presented among the choices, ranging from nanotechnology to the influence of the media to Homer, questions about their futures reel through their heads: What will their relationships be like with their professors? With their peers? Will these seminars provide the intimate intellectual experience that made them say "yes" to the "YES!" in the first place?

Freshman seminars have provided an opportunity for some students and faculty members to interact in an inviting atmosphere that encourages intellectual dialogue and, in some cases, close personal relationships.

Assistant professor of Slavic languages and literatures Mirjam Fried, who is teaching a freshman seminar on Central European cultures, said, "The format is much less formal than a lecture setting and that also contributes to a more personal relationship."

"There is less distance and more opportunity also for the professor to learn from the students — through their questions, reactions, comments. The relationship is much less lopsided," she added.

Jenna Weissman-Joselit, a lecturer in Jewish studies teaching a freshman seminar on fashion, said. "It has a lot to do with the setting, with providing a warm, supportive and gentle atmosphere in which students are actively encouraged to try their hand — and voice — at new ways of thinking."

Freshmen seminars are electives whose topics are not necessarily covered in mainstream curricula. "Both professor and students are there because they want to be and because they share an active interest in the subject," Thomas Trezise, associate professor of French and Italian, said.

Anne-Marie Bouché, assistant professor of art and archaeology, said, "One of the joys of the freshman seminar is that you get a lot of unjaded students who aren't just looking for a 'gut' and thinking about Harvard Business School. A lot of them are really hungry for knowledge." Bouché is teaching a seminar on visual arts in the Western tradition.

Other professors agree that freshmen tend to be more enthusiastic and less set in their ways, factors that may facilitate exchanges with professors.

Another commonly cited appealing characteristic is the small sizes of the seminars. "The professor gets to really know everybody really quickly and on a fairly personal level. Every student has plenty of opportunity to participate in the class discussions, to be heard, and that alone makes the connection more 'real,' " Fried said.

"It is much easier to learn all students' first names; to know about their interests, values and aspirations" with a small number of students, J.M. Spectar, director of studies at Rockefeller College, said. "This, of course, cuts both ways as it is also that much easier for students to learn about their professor."

David Chen '05 agreed, "The small class size really allowed us to interact with the professor on a one-on-one basis."

"The feedback was rapid, the analysis was deep, and the comments and assignments were very particular to the individual," he added.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

English professor William Howarth agreed that seminars allow him to engage students on a deeper level. "In a three-hour seminar, I raise questions, monitor discussion, and encourage students to give reports or brainstorm about issues and case studies."

"The seminar is infinitely more flexible as a mode of instruction, and it's also a more democratic learning experience," he added.

Howarth, who teaches a freshman seminar on the origins of English language, also compared the freshman seminar to the standard fare of two lectures and one precept that "allow a professor to dominate two-thirds of a course."

However, some students have said they feel that three hours is too long for one sitting. Shuen Chai '05 said that if she were to change the setup of freshman seminars, she would spread class time between two sessions per week, as is done in freshmen writing seminars.

Director of the freshman seminars program John Fleming said that, if he could alter any aspect of the program, he would add more offerings in science and engineering.

However, many students, especially engineers, find that they simply do not have time in their schedule for a freshman seminar, particularly now that freshmen must take a writing seminar. Chen, an engineer, was able to take one freshman seminar but said, "I would have taken [two], but my schedule and the additional writing seminar prohibited me from doing so."

Freshman seminars are unusual in that they allow faculty members the opportunity to function more as mentors than simply teachers.

Bouché said, "Within such discussions and other activities, many professors indicate a healthy emphasis on means rather than ends."

"My seminar emphasizes . . . the process more than the product . . . I want [the students] to gain confidence in their own abilities to have good ideas and express them well," she added.

Environmental sciences professor Hal Feiveson agreed, "Faculty are more interested in drawing students out and helping them to express themselves more sharply and clearly than it is in conveying some particular body of knowledge." Feiveson taught a seminar in the fall on collegiate athletics.

Weissman-Joselit said of her role in the seminar, "I'm more of a mentor, perhaps even a cheerleader for the life of the mind, than a dispenser of information and grades."

One of the attractions of freshman seminar is the highly distinguished faculty who teach them, said Peter Jeffery, Scheide professor of music history.

"Even in their first year they've had a working relationship with one of the University's many renowned researchers and teachers. At many colleges there are far fewer opportunities for a freshman to have such an experience."

"A freshman just out of high school gets to meet weekly in a small group with a professor. They don't get lost in a big impersonal lecture class," Jeffery added.

Fleming commented that in the past professors taught more of the precepts. "The freshman seminar format seeks to institutionalize and make mandatory the experience on which Princeton prides itself," he said.

William Howarth, professor of English, related, "I often hold the final session of my freshman seminar at my home. After lunch and discussion, we go for a walk in the nearby woods. Once a year, I've held a 'reunion' lunch for the alumni of the seminar, just to see how people are doing a year or two later."

Religion professor James Diamond said he also keeps up with former students. "I've met groups of former students in seminars for coffee in each of the three years after they escaped from my seminar."

However, not everyone sees student-professor relationships in the same way. Craig Dworkin, assistant professor of English, commented, "I don't see my frosh seminar students as different from students in any other class, and ideally I don't see students as a special class of people at all.

"The model, for me, is simply to think of students as adults and to treat them as individuals. I don't see my relationship to students as policing, or parental, or shepherding — and having individual relationships, rather than lumping people together as 'students,' means that there is a wide range of the kind of relationships I have," Dworkin said.

One faculty member, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, "I generally enjoy the company of the students, but I can imagine some faculty would feel that puts a bias in grading."

As to whether or not such relationships will be sustained, "I would hope that relationships formed in these seminars might be sustained beyond the first year and that the students in my freshman seminar would feel free at any point in their career to call on me. Sometimes, they do; more often, sad to say, they don't," Weissman-Joselit said.

"I'm thrilled when a former or current student broaches the possibility of lunch or an afternoon coffee. But I worry that if I were to initiate, I'd be seen as intruding. The equilibrium between professor and student is a rather delicate one."