Gary Wyatt | ESU Bulletin

John Sheridan, dean of the university library and archive, discusses next year’s theme for the general education program Wednesday afternoon in the Memorial Union Colonial Ballroom. Jon Coffey/ The Bulletin

Choosing a theme for general education in order to improve the experience of students was the main focus at the General Education Enhancement Workshop yesterday afternoon in the Memorial Union Ballroom.

“We use the metaphor of a silo,” said Gary Wyatt, associate dean of liberal arts and science and director of general education. “You hop into the history silo at nine and climb out, and then at 10 you hop into the biology silo and they’re completely different – we want to bring connections.”

The forum chose to use food as the theme for the general education program next year. The forum hopes that incorporating this theme will connect the different general education classes to one another as well as the real world and will help students find more relevance in the courses, Wyatt said.

Some of the topics presented by faculty and students including social networking, death and climate change. The forum participants addressed all of these points in small groups and then voted as a whole through three rounds of narrowing down the subjects.

The idea of choosing a theme to make connections from subject to subject stemmed from previous meetings of faculty and students and Wyatt said that other schools he had heard from had found success with this strategy.

During the debate, food received support because it was broad enough to encompass all of the subjects but not so broad as to dilute the subject so the connections could not be made. Jim Bartruff, director of theater, believed that freshmen would be bright enough to make those connections even with such a broad topic.

“I think the theme will be general enough for people to stay interested, and not a huge political stance like it could have been,” said Traci Schremmer, senior communications major.

Climate change was overlooked because of how polarizing a subject it could be, which could immediately turn off certain students, said Deborah Gerish, associate professor of social sciences.

Death was dismissed as a theme because of previous experience with such a dark subject was poorly received by students in an English course taught by Rachelle Smith, associate professor of English. She was a supporter of the theme but acknowledged the darkness of the subject.

“The overall theme, especially the uplifting one of food as compared to death, I could see that being fun for incoming freshman who can come in and see that all of their classes will have food involved. I’m very excited to see what’s going to happen next year,” said Liz Coffey, senior earth science major.

Charlie Heptas

Emporia State has recently been taking efforts to increase the quality of first-year students’ experience by forming a committee specifically established to create new programs for first-year experience development.

“There are a couple of big initiatives going on right now, they are all a part of the university’s strategic plan,” said Gary Wyatt, professor of sociology, anthropology and crime and delinquency studies. “They focus on our need to provide brand-new students with an experience that helps prepare them for life on campus. To orient them to campus life, help socialize them, to adjust them to life here, and, second, to give them skills that will help them be successful.”

The committee for first-year experience development has already helped implement some introductory classes in various departments and plans to begin a new class specifically for freshmen with undeclared majors.

“It will be based on first-year students and their transition to college,” said June Coleman-Hull, director of career services. “It will include time management, study skills, social issues, like how to make friends, how to live, how to communicate properly, and there will be a whole section on career planning.”

The class will begin with a trial run next spring and will be taught by Stacey Braun, assistant director of the Center for Student Involvement, and Carol Blade, complex coordinator for the Twin Towers.

“Our goal this year is to come up with a streamlined, comprehensive first-year experience for undecided students,” Coleman-Hull said. “It’s really to develop programs to help those undecided students both adjust to college and understand what career options are good fits for them.”

The 13 committee members, all faculty and staff, were appointed by Tes Mehring, provost, vice president of academic affairs and member of the Strategic Planning Committee and it was created as a part of ESU’s Strategic Plan.

Although it was taken down on Sep. 24, there was a “wiki” online where ESU community members could share their ideas for projects. Mehring said the action is a part of the Red Balloon Project, a movement to keep four-year institutions at their best.

“Several students, faculty and staff submitted ideas for innovation on our campus,” Mehring said. “The ESU Ideas were submitted to AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) about a week ago – first year learning experience for undeclared majors and additional professional development for faculty in technological applications for teaching were the top two ideas submitted.”

The committee that established this program is hoping to increase retention of first-year students with these ideas.

“We want freshmen to be successful,” Wyatt said. “If we do a good job in providing a first-year experience, in terms of course work, programs and those sorts of things, that more freshmen will stay. A lot of them are, don’t get me wrong, but we want to retain more.”

Alex Pederson