A new mandatory class for incoming freshmen has left some faculty frustrated and students with mixed reactions.
Beginning next fall, freshman will be required to add ASU 101: The ASU Experience to their course schedules. The one-credit hybrid class covers four core areas: the mission of ASU, entrepreneurship, sustainability and social embeddedness, Provost Elizabeth Capaldi said in an e-mail.
Each college will also add their own curriculum to the course.
There are going to be 550 sections of the course, and each section will be capped at 19 students.
The class - which will also touch on interdisciplinarity, academic integrity, managing stress and other topics related to college - will not affect tuition rates and transfer students are not required to take it.
College deans first learned of the class in a Feb. 28 e-mail memo sent by Capaldi.
By March 6, all colleges were required to have some of their class sections scheduled and available for freshmen orientation, Capaldi said in the memo.
"University College, working closely with the Provost's Office, will coordinate the overall effort to put the ASU 'signature' course in place before the first orientation session and will help bring together the experts who will create the course content," she said in the memo. "However, we need each college to designate a liaison who will help coordinate the college and university efforts."
Buzzwords
Faculty members in one large department on campus didn't find out about ASU 101 until they received an e-mail the last week of March asking for volunteers to teach the class.
The late notice has angered some in the department, said one faculty member, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
"We're outraged," she said.
And it's not just the professors they're worried about.
"We feel it's very unfortunate for all the poor new freshmen," she said.
She said she worries the class has been created to indoctrinate students into ASU President Michael Crow's plans for the New American University and uses "buzzwords," such as embeddedness and sustainability, that nobody really understands.
Geoffrey Clark, a Regents' professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, said ASU 101 is one more part of the "scam" of the New American University.
"These people have no shame," he said. "If I hear the word 'entrepreneurship' one more time, I'll vomit."
The class reminds him of a movie line "get them while they're young," Clark said.
"These people have a lot of nerve inflicting ideological crap on students, if you ask me," he added.
Time Crunch
Afsaneh Nahavandi, associate dean for University College and management professor, has been assigned to lead a task force that is developing the core curriculum for ASU 101.
Nahavandi, who is going to teach the course in the fall, said Capaldi asked her to create a course aimed at student success, and it evolved into ASU 101.
The task force and professors in charge of developing the curriculum are feeling a bit of a time crunch, Nahavandi said.
But they are moving at a good pace, she added.
The first deadline they have to reach is in the last week of April, and the curriculum must be completed in May so instructors can learn about it during the summer, she said.
"I think all of us are feeling a bit of pressure," she said. "But a lot of the material is already there."
The small class size will be beneficial to students, she said.
"Anything under 25 is a really good number for interaction," she said. "It's one extra opportunity to be in a small group."
Emma Harrison, who will be entering the School of Global Management & Leadership in the fall, said the small class size could make learning more efficient.
"It could be a good class depending on how they approach it," she said.
Harrison said she didn't hear much about the new course when she went through orientation two weeks ago.
ASU 101 is similar to UNI 100 in some aspects, Capaldi said.
UNI 100 is a one-credit academic success course that helps freshmen acclimate to the University.
Interdisciplinary sophomore Aaron Viscichini, who took UNI 100 in fall 2005, said the course was helpful.
It taught him where to go on campus to get jobs and information about the Student Recreation Complex, among other things, he said.
But he said UNI 100 or ASU 101 shouldn't be required.
"I don't think anything should be mandatory," he said.
Performance Incentives
The announcement of the new course - and the 19-student maximum - comes on the heels of news about certain performance incentives that could add $150,000 to Crow's salary.
The Arizona Board of Regents - which sets tuition and fees for the instate universities - approved a contract, which aims to achieve 10 goals, including improving freshman retention, improving 6-year graduation rates and improving ASU's third-tier rank in the US News & World Report's 2007 Best Colleges guide. ABOR approved the contract March 9.
The US News & World Report's guide ranks colleges and universities on a variety of factors such as freshmen retention rate, graduation rate and average SAT/ACT scores.
The percentage of classes with less than 20 students is also a factor in the rankings.
In 2005 (the numbers used in the 2007 U.S. News guide), 41 percent of ASU classes had less than 20 students, compared to Princeton University and Harvard University, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the rankings, which had 74 percent and 69 percent, respectively.
ASU 101 class will add 550 courses with fewer than 20 students.
But Capaldi said the maximum class size of 19 students has nothing to do with the rankings.
"This is a common class size across the country for small classes meant to introduce freshmen to the university in a way they can have good contact with someone knowledgeable about the University early in their career, and that is the basis," she said.
Reach the reporter at: kristi.eaton@asu.edu.
