General Studies| FYE

FYE -- First Year Experience

Are you a first year student? Sign up for a free First Year Experience seminar (FYE) and choose from a variety of seminar topics to earn one elective credit. As a research university, UAF communicates how research, scholarship and creative expression are conducted -- and we do so early in a student’s academic experience. First Year Experience seminar outcome goals for students are:

Learn how scholarship is conducted in a specific discipline
Provide an introduction to current areas of scholarly pursuit
Introduce students to unfamiliar academic areas (e.g., outside the secondary experience and topics not addressed in current UAF courses)
Improve student understanding of academic planning, program requirements, and the student code of conduct

First Year Experience seminars are intended to improve student persistence by connecting students to one another and to a faculty member in a small instructional group setting. National research has clearly identified first year seminars as a way to improve student graduation rates college grade performance.

First Year Experience seminars are graded pass/fail. Most seminars are held during the fall semester; however seminars may occasionally be held during spring the semester.

EARN 1 FREE CREDIT & RES LIFE CREDIT!*

*Tuition and all fees paid. Students who enroll but do not complete the course will be charged $45. Students who sucessfully complete the course, will receive $100 credit on their spring billing by Residence Life.

Class size is LIMITED -- register now ! !

Fall 2013 Seminars

Change Your Story – Change Your Life

FYE 100, Sec F01; CRN 80283

September 5 – October 31, 2013: Tuesdays 2:00-3:30pm

Location: Brooks 103

Instructor: Leslie McCartney

Native American/Canadian writer Thomas King poses in his book entitled ‘The Truth About Stories’ that stories shape who we are and how we understand others. Weaving together personal narratives, historical stories, racist propaganda, stories of social injustices and protests, religion and politics, King explores the deep roots of storytelling and the current and historical relationships between North American’s Native and non-natives peoples. King tells us that stories create the framework for our human understanding of the world and are the key to human understanding. In his words, “if we change the stories we live by, we change our lives.”

Leslie McCartney is the Curator of Oral History at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her previous work includes a post at the University of Dublin, Trinity College; as project coordinator of King’s Cross Voices Oral History Project, an ambitious oral history project carried out in the King’s Cross area of London, UK; as the lead researcher in the Gwich’in Elders Biographies Research Project, an oral history project with Gwich’in Elders in the Northwest Territories of Canada; and for a few years she served as the Executive Director of the Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute in the NWT.

Banned! Challenges to Intellectual Freedom Around the World

FYE 100, Sec F02; CRN 80282

September 5 – October 31, 2013: Wednesdays 3:30 – 5:00pm

Location: Gruening 408

Instructor: Karen Jensen

Harry Potter, Fahrenheit 451, Twilight, Captain Underpants…What do all these books have in common? They’ve been Banned! Have you ever seen a library display for Banned Books Week? It’s not just a publicity stunt; books, movies and more really do get censored in today’s information-rich world. Join the debate and understand the dilemmas faced by librarians, publishers, booksellers and writers when faced with information that may be “too hot to handle.” In this course we will examine the motives for and means of censorship in print and online, and discuss why it is sometimes difficult - yet vital – for libraries to defend intellectual freedom.

Associate Professor Karen Jensen has been a librarian at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for 15 years. She oversees the UAF Libraries’ journal, book, and database collections, ensuring that faculty and students have a rich intellectual pool of material from which to study and learn. Professor Jensen closely follows intellectual freedom issues as they affect writers and librarians. In her spare time she reads (natch!) and finds myriad ways to enjoy beautiful outdoor Alaska. She received her Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Washington, and her Bachelor of Arts in French Language and Literature from Grinnell College.

Fact or Fishin’: Critical Thinking in Fisheries Conservation and Management

FYE 100, Sec F03; CRN 80280

September 6 – December 19, 2013; Wednesdays 3:30 – 4:30pm

Location: 214 O’Neill

Instructors Trent Sutton and Andy Seitz

This freshman seminar will engage students in active learning and problem solving about fisheries conservation and management issues by promoting critical thinking and problem solving regarding current case studies in fisheries. These case studies will be real-life issues and scenarios that will challenge students to think critically and creatively.

Running with the Devil: The history of evil and the supernatural in music

FYE 100, Sec F04; CRN 80279

September 5 – October 31, 2013: Monday 3:30-5:00pm

Location: Fine Arts 301

Instructor: Morris Palter

Running with the Devil is a freshman seminar in the history of evil and the supernatural in music. Students will explore how and why the Devil, the supernatural, and evil has come to influence such a large breadth of musical activity. Through a survey of musical genres including classical, jazz, blues, hip hop, rock and other popular music forms, students are invited to enlighten themselves to the dark side of music.

Born in Canada, Morris's wide-range of musical interests have found him performing throughout North America, Asia, and Europe at some of the most prestigious festivals, conservatories, colleges, and concert venues. Recent engagements have included the Royal College of Music (London, UK), the Together Now Festival (Holland), the Musica Erudita de Piracicaba Festival (Brazil), and the University of Virginia. Morris was named a 2012 Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellowship award winner and was guest faculty for the 2011 Roots and Rhizomes Percussion Residency Program (The Banff Centre). In 2000, Morris co-founded NOISE (San Diego New Music), and is currently an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he directs Ensemble 64.8 (resident percussion lab). Morris is endorsed by Black Swamp Percussion, Paiste Cymbals and Gongs, and is a Yamaha Performing Artist. He can be heard on Sony/BMG, Mode Records, New World Records, Tzadik Records, Innova Recordings, and Vienna Modern Masters. Morris’s solo CD entitled “Remedy” is available through Centaur Records. Please visit www.morrispalter.org.

Polar Security in a Changing Arctic Environment

FYE 100, Sec F05; CRN 80281

September 5 – October 31, 2013: Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:30pm

Location: 122 Bunnell

Instructors: Harry Bader and Cameron Carlson

The seminar examines the security challenges facing the United States and its allies within a fast changing Arctic. The seminar addresses the impact of climate change on human access to, and use of, natural resources for economic, strategic, and subsistence activity. The course introduces students to the history of the U.S. security posture in the Arctic, the environmental limitations that impede operations in the Arctic, and the competing interests from sister Arctic states and other nations asserting an Arctic presence.

Harry Bader is Associate Professor for Polar & Environmental Security Studies. Prior to joining UAF, he served at USAID where he co-led the Natural Resources Counterinsurgency Cell, a joint civ-mil team tasked with denying enemy insurgents with access to revenues derived from the exploitation of natural resources. He holds a J.D. from Harvard University Law School.

Cameron Carlson is the Program Director for the Homeland Security and Emergency Management degree program at UAF. He retired from the US Army after a 24 year career in both conventional and special operations assignments and deployed extensively while on active duty and later as a contractor in support of operations in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asian States, Haiti the Balkans and Europe.

More About First Year Experience Seminars

First Year Experience seminars have been offered at UAF since fall 2010. Each fall semester, the seminars and instructors will share their scholarly interests with first year UAF students. Learn more about undergraduate research and the First Year Experience seminars at http://www.uaf.edu/ursa/undergrad-students/first-year-seminars/

For more background on First Year Experience seminars, read the original Request for Proposals at the link below.

AY 2011-12 FYE RFP

Here is a small taste of a some seminars that have been offered in the past:

Your Mind and How to Use It, Instructor Barbara Taylor, CRN 75441, Thursdays, 2:00 - 3:30 pm

Through survey of popular and scientific literature, group discussion and reflective critical thinking, you will learn about the emerging science of learnable intelligence; you will learn about your mind, how it works and what you can do to make it work better.

The Pursuit of Happiness, Instructor Alicia Hall, CRN 75443, Mondays, 2:15 - 3:45 pm

A look at happiness, positive psychology and claims of concrete strategies for increasing happiness. There is considerable debate -- both within philosophy and in psychology -- about what happiness is, exactly. This course will look at what philosophy and psychology tell us about the nature of happiness.

Hunger Games: Could it Happen to Us?, Instructor Kellie Tilton, CRN 75445, Wednesdays, 2:15 - 3:15 pm

In 2008, Suzanne Collins published the young adult novel, The Hunger Games, about a dystopian society that sacrifices a dozen children from around the nation to compete in a televised fight to the death as punishment for societal uprisings. The text of The Hunger Games will serve as a starting point to look at how similar situations are occurring throughout the world and if the decisions we are making today could bring about a similar situation.

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, Instructor Cheng-fu Chen, CRN 77411, Wednesdays 2:15 - 3:15 pm

An introduction to contemporary miniaturization including the most advanced technologies in semiconductors and microfluidics. Technologies have found ways to squeeze more powerful yet smaller components into electronic and microfluidic devices, and they are exploring new ways to squeeze even more. There is plenty of room at the bottom of the scale when it comes to creating smaller devices.