Under the wing of The University of Texas at Austin, UTSA is beginning to branch out and make its own name. In attempt to rid itself of the notorious nickname “University of Transfer Students Alliance”, one of the visible changes that has been made directly affects freshman. In attempt to keep students here and “help” them excel, a new university class, Academic Inquiry & Scholarship (AIS) has been implemented. AIS is UTSA’s version of a freshman seminar course that is mandatory at most other universities. The course aims to transition students from high school to college, and teach them about academic research, introduce academic cultures of inquiry and how knowledge is produced and shared.
Among many unforeseen problems with the course, the first is that there was an underestimated amount of AIS classes available for students to sign up for both in the fall and spring semesters. This problem left students stressed and in the possible predicament of having to take a freshman seminar class as a sophomore. Another issue with the course is that the First Year Experience (FYE) team, who created the curriculum for AIS, set up the course with many inconsistencies.
By definition, freshman seminar classes are small, engaging courses that introduce first-year students to unique subjects as per instructor’s area of interest or study. They are designed to promote peer interaction as well as student-faculty interaction. The course focuses on writing, communication, and critical thinking. While AIS does follow some of these credentials, the intended area of study is unclear. Many students claimed that the class was about “water, chocolate and genetically modified organisms (GMO’s)” while that is not what the course is supposed to be instructing. In the courses first semester, fall 2014, FYE mandated what students would be researching which happened to be, water, chocolate and GMO’s; but in the courses second semester, spring 2015, professors are supposed to allow students to pick their own research topics. Though the change in curriculum has been made, students currently enrolled in AIS for the spring 2015 semester are still claiming to only be taking about water, chocolate and GMO’s in class. These inconsistencies in curriculum are causing students to lack enthusiasm in learning the material as well as question why they have to be enrolled in the class in the first place.
Along with what is actually being taught in class, there is also a workbook style text that FYE has created that is supposed to go hand in hand with the course. The text is 100% mandatory for every student to purchase yet some students never use it in class or for studying purposes. While some professors use the book every day, other students with different professors have claimed to have barely cracked it open. This leads to more inconsistency because students are not being tested over the same things, or about things that are actually in the book that is supposed to go along with the curriculum.
Inconsistencies in how the curriculum is and should be taught are leading to a fogged view of the purpose of the course. So far the class has been unsuccessful in many aspects and has proved to be a displeasing experience for both student and professor. Creating a freshman seminar class is a positive step in making UTSA into a better university and soon into a tier one university but major changes are going to need to be made before this course can be taken seriously.