Faculty for Freshman Seminars

  Ungraded freshmen seminars, introduced in 1959, were intended to introduce new College students to faculty members and to a...

 

Ungraded freshmen seminars, introduced in 1959, were intended to introduce new College students to faculty members and to a subject of their choice—an opportunity for real intellectual exploration. But the number of courses offered peaked at about five dozen in the late 1970s and declined to just 33, accommodating barely a quarter of each class, in the 2000-2001 academic year, when Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Jeremy R. Knowles proposed reinvigorating the program and then-dean for undergraduate education Susan G. Pedersen accelerated recruiting of faculty members to teach the seminars. Harvard College dean Benedict H. Gross reported on the current state of affairs in March: 133 seminars offered last academic year and this—enough to accommodate nearly every first-year student, if they are all interested—and with dramatic gains in teaching participation by faculty members, both tenured professors and those in the junior (“ladder”) ranks.

Most popular

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Harvard President Alan Garber Helps First-Years Move In

As a potential settlement with the Trump administration looms, Garber gets students settled. 

Explore More From Current Issue

People sit in lawn chairs near a rustic barn at Cider Garden in New Salem on a sunny day.

CiderDays Festival Celebrates All Things Apple

Visiting small-batch cideries and orchards in Massachusetts

Julie Riew, wearing a white dress, playing guitar and singing into a microphone on stage.

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.

Brandon Terry, wearing a blue suit, standing before The Embrace, a large bronze sculpture of intertwined arms in Boston Common.

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress