When students come to college, they expect to attend large lecture classes with hundreds of other students, but K-State is decreasing the sizes of several freshman classes with first-year seminars.
    K-State is offering 16 pilot sessions of first-year seminars in a variety of subjects, with more than 300 students enrolled in the classes. All the classes are capped at 22 students.
    The idea for first-year seminars started developing two years ago, said Emily Lehning, assistant dean of Student Life and New Student Services. A group appointed by the provost to study the first-year experience recommended focusing on class sizes.
    “[Academics] is a critical component for students to be successful,” Lehning said. “If you don’t get the grades you can’t stay. Why not give [students] a really solid start in the classroom?” 
    Lehning said K-State has developed a pilot program to provide an academic base this fall and to see how it affects students. The program was developed after researching other schools’ first-year classes. The university will study results and speak to students and teachers to determine the pilot program’s effectiveness. 
    “We’re stepping into it in what I think is a responsible and measured way,” Lehning said.
    There will be no first-year seminars offered in the spring, as this time will be used to study data, Lehning said, but they will be offered next year. Lehning said a meeting with the seminar instructors showed results were already evident.
    “[The professors] find the students to be really engaged,” Lehning said. “They have found them to warm up to each other faster, so earlier in the semester they’re talking more in the classes.”
    Lauren Adelhardt, freshman in pre-dentistry, is in a Natural Disasters first-year seminar. The class engages in group projects and discussions, which Adelhardt said increases interaction. Adelhardt prefers her pilot class to some of her larger lecture classes.    
    “It works better,” Adelhardt said. “If you’re having problems, it’s easier for the teacher to notice since it’s such a small class.”
    Adelhardt said her teacher knows her name, which probably would not happen in a large section of the course. She said she feels more comfortable communicating with her professor. 
    “I feel like we can talk to the teacher more because we can have one-on-one time,” Adelhardt said.
    Susan Williams, associate professor of sociology, is teaching a first-year seminar in Introduction to Sociology. She also teaches a larger version of the introductory class weekly in Umberger Hall. 
    Williams said she has to be much more efficient in the larger class since it takes time to get everyone settled and hand back assignments. But she said the smaller classes are more work, since she has to improvise and stay on her toes.
    “With a small class, I can experiment,” Williams said. “I can try different things, I can be more interactive, I can look every person in the eyes.”
    Sarah Weaver, freshman in open option, experienced Williams’ Introduction to Sociology course in both the first-year seminar class and in the larger lecture class, because of confusion in her schedule at the beginning of the school year.
    She is now permanently in the larger class, but she preferred the first-year seminar because of the teacher-student interaction.
    “[Williams] talked to us and made a personal relationship with us,” Weaver said. 
    Though Weaver is no longer in the first-year seminar, she said Williams still remembers her name and greets her when they walk past each other on campus.
    Overall, the new pilot is working to improve the freshman experience. If the program is successful, all freshmen at K-State could be enrolled in one first-year seminar in the future, said Lehning.
    Adelhardt said her first-year seminar has helped her transition to college.
    “It just makes things a lot less stressful, not walking into a class of 500, especially since I come from a small school anyways,” Adelhardt said.

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