Problem:
Based on student experiences and the research we have already conducted as a seminar, I would offer that one of the major causes of issues related to race and social class at Trinity would be an ineffective First-Year Program. Currently, first-year seminars exist to acquaint freshmen with other freshmen of like interests, as well as to strengthen skills necessary to manage a college workload. However, though people might enjoy the wide variety of seminar topics, which can range from the Beatles to energy policy, few topics pertain specifically to the Trinity community.
Solution:
I would propose that faculty and staff re-vamp the First-Year Program to include more seminars like this one that would actively engage students with the campus and the issues that occur here. By encouraging students to examine and provide possible explanations and improvements for the current state of campus interactions and initiatives, students are made to feel like an integral part of the Trinity community much sooner, regardless of race or social class. Also, such seminars will allow students to feel more comfortable with addressing discrepancies on campus if the need arises later. Students will really feel as if they truly play a role in shaping the campus community because the institution will literally demonstrate how they can do so from the moment they arrive.
Additional Information:
In order to create a stronger paper, I will need more information about first-year seminars, past and present, to verify the number of Trinity-centered seminars that exist or have existed. It would also be helpful to acquire some syllabi to see how much seminars connect their topics to campus happenings. It would also be helpful to find some guidelines somewhere that outline the intended purpose of the first-year program, as well as student responses to see if it has fulfilled those expressed goals. It would be interesting to hear the ways that the first-year program influences students’ college experience in actuality, if it does at all anymore.
Nykia, this is an interesting start. Please work with Chelsey or a librarian to search for first-year seminars on race and social class at other colleges, perhaps in the Chronicle of Higher Education or journals or college websites. It would be great if you could find other syllabi or rich descriptions of ways that other campuses address this topic.