FYS129 Freshman Seminar Proposals

To: UT Knoxville Faculty
From: Todd Diacon
Subject: FYS129 Freshman Seminar Proposals
Date: September 17, 2007

Dear Colleagues:

I write today to encourage you to offer a 129 Freshman Seminar in the spring 2008. Those of you teaching a freshman seminar currently know how rewarding it can be to present a topic of your own choosing to our freshmen. Currently we have 548 students enrolled in the seminars, and expect as many to enroll in them for next semester. These are one credit courses offered on a satisfactory/no credit basis, with enrollment capped at 18 students per seminar. The program is open to all tenured and tenure-track professors, including professors offering 129 seminars this semester. Professors receive a $1,500 research grant for teaching a seminar.

Seminars being offered currently include topics such as the history of punk rock music; physics, sound and music; the human genome project, and the role of memory in Harry Potter. Faculty should feel free to teach a topic outside of their ordinary courses and their areas of research, but also may offer a topic they teach regularly, provided that it is aimed at freshmen and is appropriate for a one-credit course. To submit a 129 course proposal, or for more information on the 129 seminars, including a frequently asked questions page, please visit the Freshman Seminar website at www.utk.edu/freshmanseminar. The deadline for seminar submissions is October 05, 2007.

Faculty currently teaching 129 seminars have gone out of their way to comment on how satisfying their experience has been to date. Our newest students are engaged with the university, are meeting in small groups, and are thus experiencing the university in a way that will encourage them to persist to degree at Tennessee. Now we want to complete this circle by offering them one more opportunity to study in a small group setting during their first year on campus. Please help us make this possible by proposing a First Year Studies 129 Freshman Seminar.

Thank you,

Todd Diacon
Vice Provost for Academic Operations