When freshman Siena Ranuio-Nunes first learned she had been accepted to the University, she was a little overwhelmed. After originally searching for a campus of 5,000 students or fewer, the University’s population of more than 20,000 students seemed intimidating. Then she learned about Freshman Interest Groups and signed up.
“I think the FIG kind of helps,” she said. “It makes it feel like a smaller setting.”
In the FIG program, which is available each fall term, freshmen take a group of classes comprised of two general education courses and one College Connections course, said Amy Hughes Giard, education program assistant for first-year programs. Students can choose from different classes, which set the theme for the FIG. The College Connection course allows freshmen to meet faculty members, get adjusted to academic and social life at the University and discuss the theme of their FIGs. Each FIG also has a teaching assistant who acts as a mentor for freshmen.
“It’s really the College Connection component that makes a FIG unique,” she said.
About 1,100 freshmen are in one of the 48 available FIGs.
The FIGs, which each consist of about 25 freshmen, are named according to their focus and each include classes pertaining to the subject. The Anthropology and Folklore FIG, for example, offer Anthropology 110, English 250 and a College Connections course, English 199. Other focuses include Environmental Studies, Psychology and Philosophy and Business
The program was originally created at the University about 20 years ago by Academic Advising Counselor Jack Bennett. Bennett said he created the concept because freshmen were sometimes academically and socially isolated when they first came to the University. He said that through the use of older students and faculty as mentors, freshmen could become more connected with one another and the campus.
“It gives them an academically based social connection,” he said.
Giard said the program has expanded over the past 20 years, especially the residential component. About half of the FIGs are residential, which means students in the program live together in the same residence halls. Each residential FIG has a FIG academic assistant who also lives in the residence halls. She said this benefits students because they get to know people in their classes who they can study with.
Coordinator for first-year programs Gretchen H. Lieberman said freshmen don’t have to sign up for a FIG that coincides with their majors.
“What we try to encourage students to understand is that any of these are good for them,” she said. “This is an opportunity to explore new topics and areas of study.”
Senior Ricky Chen, who is a FIG academic assistant this fall, said the program connects freshmen with campus resources and provides them with information they can use to be successful during their college careers. He said the program set the tone for his study habits when he was a freshman.
“I realized that this was a big university,” he said. “I took advantage of the opportunity.”
A 2001 University study showed that, overall, freshmen who were in FIGs tended to have a higher GPA than those who were not in the program. The program has also lowered the rate at which freshmen drop out of the University, Lieberman said.
Associate Professor of Psychology Sara Hodges teaches Psychology 202 and the College Connections course for the Psychology and Anthropology FIG. She said she notices a difference between the students in her FIG and other students
“They seem much more engaged in the lectures,” she said, adding that FIG students, for instance, may sit closer to the front and often sit together.