All students at ACU must take University Seminar, an introductory class that allows freshman and transfer students to become acclimated to the campus, fosters community and teaches new students a consortium of things including the history of the university.
It provides students a way to learn about ACU in a relatively stress-free environment, but many things about the class lack consistency and challenges.
The inconsistency of U100 is part of why the faculty voted in May to change the U100 class. A committee created new education changes that should be implemented in one to three years, including a new three-hour Cornerstone class that offers a new integrative and global view on current issues and campus life and replaces the U100 class.
While U100 may teach students how to use the library and provide free food at professors’ homes, the new education changes that replace this class are overdue.
Every student feels differently about his or her U100 class. Some love the class; others hate it. Everyone can agree the class is inconsistent. We feel that if it is offered as an introductory course, it should be similar from class to class rather than a class that might as well be several different classes without standardized curriculums. U100 should be used to the benefit of the respective departments, but professors shouldn’t have freedom to stray from the curriculum as much as they do to make every class section completely different.
When the committee creating the new Cornerstone class works out the details of the class’s curriculum, we hope they consider the U100 curriculum was ill defined. It touches many topics but never focuses on one topic for more than a day. To truly orient someone to this campus, it’s important to focus on topics for longer than a day.
The new class will have more extensive readings and will give students a more demanding introduction into university life. That is a necessary addition to the curriculum.
The new Cornerstone class is supposed to give students the opportunity to learn with a more global view, and that’s something the U100 class lacks. It has a narrow ACU focus and doesn’t really teach how students are affected globally.
The ACU Web site states that U100 is supposed to “help build community, provide academic and personal advice, introduce students to the campus and local culture, explore ACU’s Christian mission and heritage, teach study and interpersonal skills, and help students confirm or decide on a major.”
How can students choose a major when they don’t know how they truly can “change the world?”
The new class is also supposed to focus more on current issues and their effects. We feel that is something U100 doesn’t have much of and we hope that the Cornerstone class is effective in that aspect.
While the editorial board does disagree with many of the current U100 policies, we hope that the free food at professors’
homes will continue with the implementation of the new class.
