The Rowan University Interdisciplinary Rowan Seminar Project

1
The Rowan University Interdisciplinary Rowan
Seminar Project

• The First Year

2
Our Goals

• To develop team-taught interdisciplinary courses
  for first year students that address issues of
  diversity and democracy
• To get the new Bildner courses through curriculum
  review
• To offer these new courses and embed them in the
  curriculum

3
Achievements

• Informed members of the Rowan community about the
  Bildner program
• Recruited faculty and staff to participate in
  course development workshops
• Held two workshops with a total of 9 teams
  participating
• Two Bildner courses being offered in the fall
  semester of 2003 for incoming students
• Presentations at 2 national meetings- AACU in
  January and 16th International Meeting for the
  First Year Experience

4
Potential Barriers

• Curriculum process-can be a barrier because all
  the parties do not necessarily understand the
  Bildner Project and/or Rowan Seminar
• Departmental resistance-department chairs are
  reluctant to encourage faculty to participate
  because they perceive that regular courses will
  not be covered if new interdisciplinary courses
  are offered
• Institutional climate-the current financial
  constraints dampen enthusiasm for new programs

5
Insights

• Faculty and staff are anxious to engage in this
  work
• Workshop participants have been overwhelmingly
  positive in their response
• Institutional assessment Middle States Review