Freshmen students and faculty went to the university’s annual trip to New Harmony as part of the UNIV 101: First Year Experience course Sept. 12.
“In UNIV 101, what we’re working towards teaching our students is about campus and community resources as well as transitioning to being a student at USI,” said Kristalyn Shefveland, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
“What we tried to plan was something that’s kind of the essence of a first-year experience course,” said Kenny Purcell, director of university core curriculum. “First-year experience courses should help a student acclimate to being a university student here at USI specifically, and then also an opportunity to learn about resources and opportunities that are available.”
Last year, The Shield reached out to students about their experience on the trip and received a largely negative response. Purcell and Shefveland said they made some changes this year after they received feedback from last year’s trip.
“I think this year was a response to some of the feedback that was received last year,” Purcell said. “You know, the complaints, for lack of a better word, of the lecture-heaviness of it and trying to pull back but also maybe just reflecting our points of view that one of the most important things is that freshmen become part of the community and feel like they belong here because they do belong here.”
“We took in a lot of the feedback that we’ve received from our classes, but also from the original article to have an understanding of what went wrong,” Shefveland said.
Purcell and Shefveland said a video was made to explain New Harmony’s historical significance to USI.
“New Harmony is part of our campus,” Purcell said. “It’s geographically disconnected, but it is literally part of us. It is something unique that USI has. Other institutions can visit there, but when we go there, we’re just going to another part of campus. I think that’s really an opportunity for us, for students, to realize that this is just an extension of campus.”
Overall, students had a positive reaction to this year’s trip.
“We basically walked around New Harmony, toured major sites like an art museum, a labyrinth,” said Gavin Rogers, freshman computer science major. “It’s really interesting. I liked it.”
Katelyn Gunter, freshman elementary education major, said she enjoyed the trip more than she expected. “It was nice to have the day off and get to experience everything there,” she said.
“I liked it,” said Gracie Herzog, freshman art education major. “I liked being able to see all the historical buildings.”
Josey Herr, freshman biology major said the one thing she would change is having more time.
“I would have liked to have more time just to walk around and explore,” Herr said.
However, Caitlin Klein, freshman nutrition major, said she thought they spent too much time there.
“As soon as we got done with everything it was, we just stood around for a little bit. But other than that, it was great,” Klein said.
Purcell said they are still hoping to receive feedback from this year’s trip.
“We’ll formally get feedback,” he said. “We’re developing a survey now to go out to all the UNIV 101 students and to the instructors.”
“If 20 years from now, a student chosen at random says, ‘Remember that time we went out to New Harmony and hung out and ate. Yeah, it was a lot of fun,’ then that’s good because you should have positive experiences,” Purcell said.
