This fall, first-year students will take part in a Vanderbilt Visions program that looks quite a bit different from the one that debuted in the fall of 2006.
Vanderbilt Visions began last fall with the goal of facilitating the transition of first-year students into university life, but an evaluation conducted just months after the program began revealed that only one-third of first-year students approved of the program.
This fall, changes will be instituted that reflect the ideas of both faculty and students alike. According to VUcept President Stuart Hill, the new Vanderbilt Visions is a product of true collaboration.
“Dean of Commons Frank Wcislo said that this is the first time he has seen such a collaborative effort for something that is part of the university curriculum,” Hill said. “That is pretty unprecedented both here at Vanderbilt and at other universities.”
Wcislo said current first-year students were heavily involved in the reconfiguration of the Visions program through focus groups and surveys.
“The first draft of Vanderbilt Visions 2.0 was written by current first-year students,” he said. “Whether students actually write several drafts of their papers or not, they all know that everything gets better with multiple drafts. But the first draft is the key one, and that one was written completely by students.”
Hill said the focus groups and surveys revealed that students wanted Vanderbilt Visions to be more specific to the Vanderbilt experience. This want is reflected prominently in the new curriculum.
“This year’s focus is different because it is much more on the acculturation process of the first-year students,” said Nina Warnke, executive administrator of Vanderbilt Visions. “What has really changed is how we approach the topics. They have become more student-centered. It is very much a response to what students told us they wanted to get out of the program,” she said.
According to Hill, the subjects that will be discussed are a big shift from what he referred to as “last year’s capital-letter topics.”
Topics listed on this fall’s syllabus include “What Makes Our University Tick?” “Stereotype My Community,” and “Habits for Success.” These topics will be supplemented with essays written by students and faculty at Vanderbilt.
This time around, VUceptors will also be encouraged to exercise more flexibility and creativity within the curriculum — a component Warnke said was not necessarily made clear last year.
“We were much more proactive this year to say ‘Here is your curriculum. Please be creative,’” Warnke said. “We want to provide a structure and resources and at the same time give each group the flexibility to develop their own ideas, choose their own topics, to be creative. I think that’s what is key here.”
In addition to more Vanderbilt-specific topics and increased creativity, Visions will also feature smaller groups.
Last year there were 80 sections of Vanderbilt Visions with 20 students in each, while this year there will be 100 sections consisting of 15 to 16 students each. Administrators hope the smaller group size will facilitate better discussion.
All of these changes will be made possible by increased resources. This fall, each Vanderbilt Visions group will be allocated $750 compared to last year’s allocation of $200 per group.
“What this means is that we want groups to find ways to explore the community and be active in the community,” Warnke said. “We want them to find other ways to have a group experience outside of the classroom.”
Both Warnke and Hill are optimistic that this year’s program will be better than the one that came before it.
“My personal expectation is that we are going to have a much better year,” Hill said. “No one considers last year a failure, myself included, but I am very excited for what’s to come next year.”
