Dear Colleagues,
Each semester, faculty from across campus welcome our newest students into our intellectual community by teaching in the Freshman and Sophomore Seminar Program. We invite you to join us.
Most seminars meet for an hour once a week, for one unit of credit, and are meant to be discussion-based and interactive. In 2024–25, we especially welcome seminars on topics that intersect with the 2024 On the Same Page selection, the film Oppenheimer. Seminars can be on almost any topic you can dream up. This fall, faculty are offering seminars on “The Economics of Biomedical Innovation,” “Bureaucracy at Berkeley,” and “BTS: Welcome to the Magic Shop.”
Our students tell us that the small class sizes and discussion-based learning support their integration into a large university, build their confidence, and help them find their place at Berkeley. One student said: “I felt like I had a place in this really big school, and I was able to actually talk to my classmates and teacher. I also am grateful that I got to find a group of people who shared my passion.” The seminars' small class sizes also enable faculty to create unique opportunities for hands-on experiential learning. For his spring 2024 seminar, “The UC Botanical Garden: The Plants, The Research, The Public,” Lewis Feldman (Plant & Microbial Biology) brought students into the UC Botanical Garden each week to learn about research and working in a public garden.
If you are interested in teaching a seminar in spring 2025, please let your department chair and scheduler know, and then submit a Faculty Participation Form by Thursday, September 19, 2024. Senate faculty who teach a 1- or 2-unit Freshman and Sophomore Seminar as an overload will receive a $3,000 grant that can be used for anything related to their teaching or research.
To receive more information about the Freshman and Sophomore Seminar Program or to brainstorm ideas, contact Aileen Liu, Director of Curricular Engagement Initiatives in the College of Letters & Science, at aileen.liu@berkeley.edu.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Johnson-Hanks
Executive Dean of the College of Letters and Science
Oliver M. O’Reilly
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
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