First-Year Experience:

         Common Book Pilot Project

         Contact Person: Paul Johnson

         2005-2006 Funding: $9,000

         Funding Source: Innovation

         Impact (# of students): 400

The “Common Book” Pilot Project program brings together an interdisciplinary community of learners in the extended study and discussion of a single work.  This two-year pilot project is intended to develop into a “Common Book” program linking all incoming first-year students with readers in the university and local community.  For fall semester of 2005, fifteen faculty have volunteered to adopt Gang of One in approximately 20 different English classes, predominantly English 111 sections, totaling over 500 students.  Author Fan Shen, Professor of English at Rochester Technical and Community College, will visit the Winona campus and work directly with WSU students Oct. 11 and 12.  For spring semester of 2006, Fan Shen will be on campus for additional activities and workshops, including an essay contest and reception for student contestants.  Also during the 2005-06 academic year, the “Common Book Learning Community” that will examine and select possible texts for future years; seek ways of expanding the project to a wider number of WSU students in 2006-07; and work towards the eventual goal of making the “Common Book” a viable and workable component of WSU’s First-Year Experience in the years to follow. 

The Common Book Learning Community cordially invites the participation of interested students, staff, faculty, and administrators who would like to work to make this vision a reality.

Interdisciplinary Approach To University Studies and

First-Year Experience

Contact Person: Paul Johnson

         2005-2006 Funding: $31,000

         Funding Source: Innovation

         Impact (# of students): 30

The First-Year Experience initiative is designed to provide an activity-rich, academically-supportive, learner-centered educational environment designed to help first-year students become part of “a community of learners dedicated to improving our world.”  Much of the work undertaken as part of "Learning for the 21st Century" is aimed at improving resources, teaching, retention, programming, advising, and wellness of/for WSU's first-year students.  In sum, these "21st-Century" initiatives—including the common book, expanded academic assistance, the redesign of megasections, the learning portfolio, enhanced interdisciplinary experiences, and many others—will constitute a revolutionary redesign of the First-Year Experience at WSU. 
          Based on the efforts of prior years' workgroups, the First-Year Experience will aim to draw together these diverse initiatives with a set of common goals for incoming students.  Among these, we ultimately expect to provide all WSU students in their first year with the following:

• A thorough and effective orientation to WSU’s academic and support service offerings
• A common book reading experience fostering community both in and beyond the classroom
• Effective advising and scheduling in both major and University Studies courses
• An introduction to the learning portfolio
• Experiential, active, and travel-based learning opportunities in a range of classes, from small
• Multiple opportunities for connecting academic studies to available, coordinated extracurricular programming