The College is pleased to announce that we have accepted a number of wonderful proposals for First-Year Seminars to be offered in Fall 2006. Funding is still available for additional courses, but we would like to complete the Fall schedule by April 1. We are also accepting proposals for Spring 2007.

For each course offered, we will provide the department with a $2,500 increase in its general expense budget, to be used for any purpose except direct compensation to the faculty member offering the course. Departments may use these funds for faculty travel, graduate or undergraduate RA support, or special projects (e.g., to support colloquia or speaker series that benefit the entire department). You may wish to encourage faculty in your department who have ideas for special projects, without having a way to fund them, to propose seminars. There are many reasons for faculty members to propose a First-Year Seminar. A Seminar can be a good way to try out an idea for a possible new three-semester hour course, or to explore with students a new book or a new idea in a field, or to introduce new students to a discipline about which they may know very little.

Seminar topics should be closely related to faculty members’ research activities, and ideally will allow students to participate directly in those activities. The College and the Provost particularly encourage senior research faculty to teach a first-year seminar. We discourage the participation of probationary faculty members who have not yet received a contract renewal. First-Year Seminars are 1 s.h. courses open only to students in their first or second semester at the University, with enrollment capped at 15–16 students. The proposal form and links to descriptions previous seminars are available on the First-Year Seminar web page (http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/first_year_seminar/index.shtml).

We invite innovative proposals, including “intensive” seminars that meet for part of the semester; team-taught seminars, and practice-based courses that are focused on activities and skill acquisition. The College will continue to facilitate the inclusion in the seminar of an advanced undergraduate student to act as a peer mentor and work with the faculty member on the course.

Please contact JoAnn Castagna (at 335-2632 or joann-castagna@uiowa.edu) if you have questions.