The question of who would carry the burden of advising is still unresolved. In this scenario, the major might provide an academic program advisor, but the professional advisor would keep the mentoring role even after declaration of a major. The role of the freshman seminar needs to be clearly defined as we will have to be quite specific about this when we present to the faculty. We need to define size restrictions, the seminar format, the learning goals, the level of rigor expected, the writing intensive nature, and the USI partnership within a learning community. The sense of community comes from the learning community structure.
Students have an experience of community rather than receiving it from course content.
This definition of a freshman seminar and its location allows the possibility of the seminar in the second semester, though this raises concerns about the relationship of the learning community, and the concept of having the USI component in the second semester, which may not be as useful. We need to define the relationship of the FS to the perspectives and to the writing component. Brian has reminded us that our present paradigm, including a one-hour transition oriented USI, is not successful with respect to retention. We are offering that the learning community arrangement of freshman seminar and USI will alter the current paradigm to be a more flexible version of what Sonoma State has, with success in retention. If it is a perspectives course exclusively, then any department that offers a perspectives course is eligible.