THE GUILFORDIAN
NOVEMBER 6, 1 998
Structural changes: comparing FYS and FYE
By Colin Berry
STAFF WRITER
The first year of college be
gins a flood of uncertainties,
which unfortunately never stop
flowing. However, this year
Guilford has focused on easing
this transition for its freshmen
by implementing the new First
Year Experience (FYE) in place
of its previous First Year Semi
nar (FYS).
Twenty years ago, first-year
students were required to take
IDS 101, which was a bookend to
the required senior class, IDS
401. IDS 101 subjects were cho
sen well before the professors of
the classes wee selected, so pro
fessors had no choice in the sub
ject of their course.
Conversely, the switch from
IDS 101 to FYS welcomed profes
sors to design their own course,
one that fit their personal inter
ests.
The new FYE program is not
to be mistaken for a totally new
program. Like FYS, FYE profes
sors still design their own
courses, and the 18 offered
classes are still based on inter
disciplinary studies. In addition,
faculty still aim to address time
management skills, use of the li
brary, and possible major and
career choices.
The main difference be
tween the former FYS and the
new FYE is that now professors
are required to include three
things in their course's curricu
lum as well as FYS's interdisci
plinary core.
FYE courses must focus on
speaking and listening skills,
carry an experiential component,
and examine the five Quaker tes
timonies.
The design of the new FYE
program guarantees that each
first-year student will receive
identical information that is
packaged and integrated into a
subject that the student chooses
to study. This way FYE courses
Tit! 5
Features
are consistent with one another
yet each still holds its own
unique qualities.
Other improvements to the
first-year program include the
guarantee that each student's
FYE instructor is also his or her
academic advisor. Meeting with
the class three times a week, the
professor is ensured a better
chance to get to know the stu
dents on a more personal level as
well as time to chart the stu
dents' growth through classroom
observation.
Also, FYE aims to embed
orientation into the students' en
tire first year at Guilford and not
just to plant it in the one-week
of Chaos in August. Anne
Lundquist, Director of the First
Year Program, says, "I've been
trying to move in the direction to
get people to see that orientation
is an ongoing process."
Most recently, this continu
ation of orientation can be seen
through FYE's experiential com
ponent. So far FYE classes have
gone rock climbing, camping, on
all-day field trips, and social
gatherings together.
"My FYE class [Rights of
Passage] went rock climbing,"
says first-year student Josh
Verleun. "It was a real bonding
experience where we had to work
through a physical challenge to
gether."
In other words, the students
continue getting to know one an
other and to bond well into the
school year. Learning about each
other does not stop just because
school has started.
FYE tries to facilitate the
evolution of well-rounded stu
dents who thrive in their four
years at Guilford. "I think FYE
is the best orientation," says Zee
Russell. "It's gotten me into ev
erything at Guilford and has
touched not only the emotional
side of coming here, but also the
spiritual and physical sides. I
definitely think FYE should con
tinue here."
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_I . _ .I I .I RWR SARAH BETSON
oylvia I relies Reaches in the new rYt program.
Pleasant, cont'd from page 6 a iiy powerful. It is said to be
surprise for me. It easily could the film with the single most
have stopped at being a parody special effect sequences ever
of 50's television, or been a re- made, and after watching the
versal on The Brady Bunch: The population of Pleasantville turn
Movie. Fortunately, the writ- from black and white to bril
ers decided to explore the idea liant technicolor, I am willing
on a deeper level. It's a witty to believe it. This film is beau
and touching story about how a tiful to watch,
safer, cleaner world is not al- Pleasantville could very
ways a better one. In fact there easily be one of the best films
is so much written into this film I've seen in a long time. It was
that is worthy being discussed, well-written, well-acted, and
it would be impossible to fit it well-directed. So go see
all in here. Pleasantville, and maybe then
Apart from the wonderful you'll see that we're not that
writing, Pleasantville is visu- bad off here in the 90's after all.
7