Information for Faculty

If you are interested in proposing a new seminar, or have questions about a seminar you are teaching currently, please review the information below, including the FRS Faculty Toolkit (PDF). You can also review complete descriptions of seminars offered currently and in previous quarters on the Seminars Offered page. Staff from the CETL are also available to talk with you about your ideas for a new seminar or your experiences in teaching one. To schedule a meeting, please send an email request to CETL@ucdavis.edu.  If you describe briefly the topics and questions you would like to discuss, we’ll identify a CETL consultant with related expertise.

FRS Faculty Toolkit: For guidelines about proposing or teaching a Freshman Seminar, and sample seminar proposals, download the FRS Faculty Toolkit (PDF). The Toolkit includes a list of program expectations, examples of expanded seminar descriptions, suggestions for grading students, a copy of the student questionnaire used to evaluate Freshman Seminars, and an analysis of student and faculty responses to seminars offered in 2005-06.

Eligibility: If you hold an instructional appointment at UC Davis you are eligible to teach a Freshman Seminar. This includes all members of the Academic Senate and all Lecturers, Adjunct Lecturers, Lecturer Supervisors, Visiting and Adjunct Professors, and Emeriti Professors.  Graduate students are not eligible to teach on their own but can serve as co-instructors with an eligible faculty member, as long as the eligible faculty member attends the majority or all of the sessions and is fully involved in the teaching of the course. Please keep in mind that the Freshman Seminar Program itself does not appoint instructors; the program only reviews and coordinates seminar offerings. Instructional appointments can only be provided by academic departments and programs. For more information on eligibility or to find answers to other questions, visit the faculty section (bottom half) of our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

Submitting a Seminar Proposal: First review a few examples of expanded FRS proposals and other materials in the Faculty Toolkit for form and content.  Then submit a proposal to teach a Freshman Seminar online here: FRS Online Application Form. A copy of each completed application is sent automatically to your department chair for approval. Pending the chair’s approval, the application is sent for review to the FRS Faculty Review Committee. Review Committee comments and suggestions will be forwarded to you by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). Approved proposals are retained by the CETL and are available for review by the Committee on Courses of Instruction.

Seminar Proposal Application Deadlines:

  • Fall Quarter Seminars = submit by Monday, August 22, 2011
  • Winter Quarter Seminars = submit by preceding October 1
  • Spring Quarter Seminars = submit by preceding January 1

 

Review Criteria: To ensure that your application is consistent with FRS ideals and guidelines, we encourage you to review the catalog description (below) and the Toolkit resources listed above.

Catalog copy (FRS)
001-004. Freshman Seminar (1-2) I, II, III. The Staff
Seminar–1-2.5 hours. Prerequisite: open only to students who have completed fewer than 45 quarter units. Investigation of a special topic through shared readings, discussion, written assignments, and special activities (such as fieldwork, site visits, laboratory work, etc.). Emphasis is upon student participation in learning.

Compensation: Freshmen Seminars are taught as overload. The instructor who teaches the seminar will receive $2,000 (for 2-units) or $1,500 (for 1-unit) per course, not as salary but as a fund available to support his or her academic expenses. If the seminar is team-taught, the award is divided among the instructors.

Mini-grants: Seminar instructors may apply for a Mini-grant of up to $500 to cover eligible course expenses. For more information, review the application and eligibility requirements on the Freshman Seminar Mini-grant page.

Documenting FRS Teaching and Learning: We are always interested in documenting the good work that many students and instructors do in connection with the Freshman Seminar program. If you or your students have prepared course materials or completed assignments that might be of interest to other instructors, please let us know. In addition the the materials in the FRS Faculty Toolkit, we are developing an online exhibition space for materials of this sort. We’d be delighted to add interesting material from your seminar to this collection.

NOTE: At the beginning of each quarter, we are often asked if FRS class sizes can be increased. It is simply not possible to increase the enrollment beyond 19 students per class under any circumstances. We apologize for any disappointment this may cause; however, this is a firm rule.