Students take Freshman Studies in their fall and winter terms. These two courses do not magically transform anyone into a skilled and independent thinker. But they present the student with a variety of stimuli the responses to which are mind-building. Happily, many freshmen come to LU with strong intelligence and solid work habits, but even for them, using and therefore having a mind is an emerging process, not an antecedent reality. Their work in Freshman Studies accelerates and guides that process.
Many good things can happen in and because of twenty-three discussion sessions and six lectures.
Students have a chance to not only talk about texts, but to talk about ideas that have a bearing on the way we conduct our lives. The guides in Freshman Studies are the discussion leaders and lecturers. Each fall nineteen or twenty instructors from approximately twelve different Lawrence departments serve as teachers. The program is staffed by people who have their home-bases in the various specialized academic disciplines, who are committed to the liberal arts, and who volunteer to teach in Freshman Studies. For the past few years, there have been more volunteers than were needed.