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Cornerstone advisement goes topical
Freshmen in Gentilella's seminar: (from left) Suzannah Cooke, Sheila Bharucha, and Leah Maloney. Photo by Lee Pellegrini
If you did not know much about the molecular medicine seminar taught by the biology department's associate chair Clare O'Connor, you might wonder why this surprisingly relaxed class of a dozen or so freshmen in Higgins 345 began and ended with talk of dinner, and why O'Connor's suggestion of a side dish, orange cauliflower, raised smiles.
O'Connor's course is one of six new "topic seminars" launched by BC's Office of First Year Experience this past fall, for freshmen only. As such, its aim is multipurpose: to expose freshmen to a subject of particular interest to a professor and new to them; to provide opportunities for socializing in an academic grouping (each seminar has a $750 social budget); and to widen the avenues for faculty guidance in the year or more before students declare their majors. O'Connor's class, which included a segment on genetic modification, may have been the only seminar where students could hope to meet at table and literally consume their subject matter, but in its blend of conviviality and serious discussion it was typical. The seminars, which are designed to conclude before Thanksgiving (and well before the press of final exams), earn the students one credit and are pass-fail. Says associate dean Bill Petri, who coordinates the program, "This is real learning where the pressure is off."
Last fall's topics included "The Politics of Evil" (with psychology professor Ali Banuazizi); "Democratic Statesmanship" (political scientist Robert Faulkner); "Odysseus/Ulysses in Time and Place" (the Honors Program's Tim Duket); "The 2004 Presidential Election" (political scientist Marc Landy); and "Native American Life in the United States—The Struggle to Exist Through Memory" (English professor Dacia Gentilella).
The topic seminars themselves are a spin-off of the Cornerstone advisement seminars created in 1998 to improve freshmen academic advisement and mentoring. The advisement seminars remain ongoing (this year there were 15); students in those classes read a selection of texts—by authors ranging from Tobias Wolff to Alice Walker to the Apostle Luke—that speak directly or indirectly to the process of setting academic or personal goals. Nearly 300 students participated in the two programs combined.
TWO DAYS after the November elections, there were ample questions to ponder in Professor Marc Landy's topic seminar "The 2004 Election," which met in McGuinn 437.
Landy began by asking the 16 assembled freshmen, "What's the meaning of all this? What do we know about American politics today that we didn't know on Monday?" After some grumbling in the room about personal experiences with the vagaries of voter registration and absentee ballots—not quite to the larger point, but understandable coming from first-time voters—student Michael DuBois of Weymouth, Massachusetts, acknowledged, "After this election, I have a lot of respect for Karl Rove as a strategist." Referring to President Bush's political mastermind, DuBois, a confessed Democrat, said Rove's "risky strategy" of cultivating the Republican base paid off in the form of three million evangelical voters who had sat out the 2000 election. "There's Bush's popular vote margin," he figured.
Scenes from O'Connor and Landy's seminars: (from left) Benjamin Tress and Kevin Yang; Jessica Burke, Kimberly Ng, and Meghan Harrington. Photos by Lee Pellegrini
"I was disappointed in the young voters," Cara Caponi of Indianapolis remarked, noting that despite mobilizations like "Rock the Vote," the youth turnout was proportionately no greater than it had been in 2000.
But then Landy reviewed the math. Absolute numbers of young voters did go way up, though their share of the electorate did not, due to an immense overall turnout. "The young people really didn't embarrass themselves," Landy assured Caponi.
"I disagree," announced DuBois: "This means there was nothing special in the turnout of young people."
"You're right," Landy said with a generous nod. "Mike has a point."
Politics aside, the exchange illustrated one reason why topic seminars were added to Cornerstone's curriculum. In the advisement seminars, the teaching approach has been "shared inquiry"—professors ask questions, but don't answer them. In contrast, during his topic seminar, Landy was responding to questions and comments with facts and analysis within his area of expertise. That approach is more to the liking of some faculty.
During a few exchanges, such as when discord broke out over gay marriage, Landy played the time-honored academic role of referee. ("Guys, we're talking about a tough question here, and I want it treated with respect.") At other times, the only discipline imposed upon the group was to insist that a called-upon student respond to the point just made by his or her classmate.
After the session, Landy explained in an interview, "These kids were told in high school that they're supposed to talk, but they didn't get the message about listening. So that's part of what we're doing here—we're learning how to listen to each other."
IN ALL of these seminars, the broader purpose is not only to feed the life of the mind but also to encourage thinking, on all sides, about the life of the student in this particular academic community. That is why, in the opening 15 minutes or so of each meeting, Professor Dacia Gentilella lets conversation wander where it will, before turning to her topic of Native American life in the United States.
At the start of the seminar's last meeting, one student panned a talk given on campus by conservative pundit Ann Coulter. (The professor interjected, "Hey, I'm just glad students are going to things.") Another student wondered aloud if she could drop a class (not this class) two days before Thanksgiving, which was not entirely off base, since topic-seminar professors also serve officially as the advisors to their first-year students. And there was lighthearted buzz about a local bakery.
The formal class discussion centered on an essay by imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier, and bigger questions such as how ordinary people could bring about social change. "This is a great example of what I want college to be about. To be not just concerned with grades, with my major, with my career path—but to discover new things, to be inspired," said Leah Maloney of Hamden, Connecticut, speaking after class.
Scenes from Gentilella and Landy's seminars: (from left) Amanda Buescher, Timothy Douglas, and Stephen Schroeder; Benjamin Gardner, Michael DuBois, and Nicholas Bradley. Photos by Lee Pellegrini
"For me, it really hits home," added Amanda Buescher, of Thousand Oaks, California, "because I'm half Native American and my dad grew up on a reservation. And he died when I was young, so it's a way for me to connect with him and where he came from"—a thoughtful pause—"where
I
came from."
Through the seminar, Buescher was also connecting with her new social milieu, the freshman community, and her new surroundings. That's part of the package—"this class is sort of instant community," Gentilella said in an interview. Some of this bonding has taken place beyond Chestnut Hill, as when the class ventured into Boston's North End and settled into an Italian bakery for an extracurricular field trip. By her students' reactions, "You'd think I opened up the door to Fort Knox. You'd think it was Christmas," Gentilella said. There's talk of a spring reunion at the bakery.
What Gentilella likes most about the seminar, aside from its focus on a topic that intrigues her, is that she can tend to "the whole student." And her students say that getting to know their professor has been a huge plus for them. Seminar professors like Gentilella were "handpicked," explains Petri, "because they have a real interest in caring for students. They're also good communicators, and you have to teach in a way that's intellectually stimulating but absorbable for a mixed group of majors." He adds, "A theology major should have no fear of the genomic revolution."
Indeed, in her seminar, "Tailored for You: Medicine Becomes Molecular," biologist Clare O'Connor invited students to reflect on medicine-and-morality questions. Her freshmen were "an ethically minded group," she said one day after class, noting that they were against reproductive cloning and were wrestling with the issue of therapeutic, or research, cloning.
But one thing will likely be cloned on campus, and that is the topic seminars, which, after their spring hiatus, are expected to increase from six to 12 next fall.
William Bole
William Bole is a freelance journalist who lives in Andover, Massachusetts.
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