Current Ashland University freshmen have a different first-year experience than students in years past.
To better educate on resources available to students at AU, freshmen are now encouraged to take a first-year success seminar, previously referred to as a student success seminar.
Self–service, the AU student online course catalog, describes first-years’ seminar as, “A seminar to help students become active, committed members of the learning community. Students will explore and define their academic expectations of academic life, reflect on the nature of liberal arts, explore possible degree paths, and become familiar with the AU learning community.”
The first-year seminar is now worth one credit hour unlike in previous years where it bared no credit.
Students in the course will read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the first book of Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus. Aside from the readings, students will learn about academic resources available at AU.
Dan McDonald, chair for the department of art and associate professor of art at AU, and Gregory McBrayer, director of core curriculum and assistant professor of political science at AU, worked together to build a first-year course more heavily focused on academics.
“Last fall, Dr. McBrayer and I suggested a more academically focused course that would build on what the student success office had created. We were only interested in doing so if the course could once again carry academic credit, taught by compensated faculty. With the support of the Provost’s office, we put together a master syllabus December 2022,” said McDonald.
The new first-year seminar course is meant to help students adjust to the college experience while meeting peers and faculty members outside of their major.
“It will allow [freshmen] to explore the transition to college through a common experience that requires them to reflect and discuss important topics and texts while being introduced to the support structures that will help them become successful students,” said McDonald.
AU freshman, Aspen Hatfield, said that the class may be better suited for students who are struggling with adjusting to college level academics. “I do feel like this class is a little bit useless. In my opinion, this class would better serve students who are struggling with their academics,” said Hatfield.
Biology professor, Mason Posner, says that he volunteered to teach the first-year seminar course because he believes the course is a good opportunity for undergraduate students to have a shared experience.
“I think everyone, no matter their major or career path, can benefit from having a shared experience reading this amazing story about humanity. Like many courses, students get the potential from the course based on the energy they put into it. So that potential will vary, and I know some students have valued the course so far, while I guess others don’t find it of value,” said Posner.
Former AU graduate Sabrina Maristela works as an assistant for the first-year seminar course with Professor Mason Posner. Maristela vouches for the course saying that she believes the course was meant to prepare students for college and life.
“This is an awesome opportunity to learn about what it means to live a good life while also getting close to one of our amazing faculty members. It’s kind of disappointing that so many students are choosing to blow off the readings for this course, but I’m glad that AU is providing something of quality to those who really want to better themselves and not just sit in a classroom for four years to get a piece of paper,” said Maristela.
AU once required the freshman success seminar in order to graduate. McDonald said that when he arrived at AU in 2006, the course was used in a similar fashion to the current day, and that it had been used that way for multiple years prior.
It was not until several years ago that the course stopped bearing credit, causing students to no longer take the course seriously.
McDonald sights this change being a result of handing over the course to the Student Success office.
“The excellent folks in that area [Student Success offices] were tasked with adding the creation, maintenance, and delivery of the course to their already busy schedules without any compensation,” said McDonald.
Kristina Cunningham, assistant director of academic advising, said in 2013 the Accent on Success course was no longer required for graduation as decided by Faculty Senate.
“The Professional Academic Advisors proposed a non-credit-bearing seminar to the Provost. This was to ensure students were receiving transitional information and guidance throughout their first semester at the university. The Freshmen Success Seminar was not a graduation requirement and was worth zero credits. The seminar focused on high school to college transition and included information about resources, policies and procedures, degree planning, academic soft skills, and registration. This seminar was last taught by the Professional Academic Advisors in the of Spring of 2023,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham says students will complete an end-of-course evaluation which will be useful in determining whether the first-year seminar is serving its intended purpose.
AU freshman, Devin Carroll, said he does not believe the first-year seminar is serving its intended purpose.
“I definitely think that my time could be spent doing something more productive. It’s a class that just packs onto my homework, doesn’t relate to my major, and feels like the same type of busy work I had to do in high school. I could be working on other assignments or even taking another class instead of wasting my time,” said Carroll.
While the question remains whether the first-year seminar course is beneficial to freshmen students, Maristela believes the course is only going to be useful if freshmen allow it to be.
“I think every student will get out of this course what they put into it… If AU is really here to teach you ‘how to think, not what to think,’ then you’re going to have to put some work into thinking,” said Maristela.
