LAS100: Majoring in Liberal Arts and Sciences is a one-credit college-orientation seminar for new students. Beginning in 2003, LAS100 was offered as an elective course for new students entering the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The shift from a required course with a homogeneous enrollment (sections delineated by major) to an elective course with a heterogeneous group (some students with declared majors combined with undeclared students) provided an opportunity for curricular redesign. The overarching objective of LAS100 is to orient first-year students to campus resources, to emphasize the values of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, including curiosity, openness to new ideas and respect for differing points of view and to promote evolving personal aspirations.

Supported by a Center for Teaching Excellence Mini-Grant in 2003, a service-learning component was incorporated into two sections of LAS 100 requiring students to complete a minimum of ten hours of service, assessing and/or meeting community needs, with “community” meaning the campus community. The aim was to help students establish connections with the campus, and provide an adequate context for thinking about social issues and values, which would serve them as citizens in college and after graduation.

Students in LAS100 were given a list of service site options and asked to rank their preferences. The instructor then matched students with sites, to ensure an even distribution of students across the sites available. All students were assigned to one of their top three choices. Students’ motivations for their site selection varied: some chose sites that related to their major (e.g., a political science student who worked with the Bureau of Labor Education), others chose what they perceived as low-risk sites (e.g., an undeclared student who selected the Office of Substance Abuse Services), and some chose an area that linked to previous experiences (e.g., a student who previously conducted missionary work in Hungary worked with the Office of International Programs). One student, who self-identified as Franco-American, worked with the Franco-American newspaper, Le Forum. As a new student, he was hopeful this experience would help him make new friends on campus, further explore/understand his heritage, and enable him to explore a career possibility.

LAS100 Syllabus (2003)