tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542735367750845260.post6509047079882807009..comments2023-11-03T03:41:01.783-07:00Comments on Musings from an Amateur: How is community really built?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14991593461200755444noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542735367750845260.post-30952794361103254802010-03-26T15:22:28.184-07:002010-03-26T15:22:28.184-07:00I am sad about the end of FA as well. But in resp...I am sad about the end of FA as well. But in response to the question "how is community really built?" I guess my first answer is "what sort of community do you want?" FA was built on a set of beliefs about the behavior of freshmen, the desirability of curricular integration, the willingness of faculty at BYU to engage directly with students, and the expectations of the gospel for human relations.<br /><br />For me the question is this--"What are the beliefs that undergird the mentoring program?" One that appears immediately is that community at BYU has much less to do with academic relationships (across the curriculum and between faculty and students) than it does with student-to-student relations. I wonder if that is true, and if so, whether it is good.<br /><br />At any rate, it might be opening more space for student self-direction, esp. if the institution is willing to support students who want to start new things and revise old things without oversight from faculty. Or it might be returning to the old BYU model that suggests that the only relationships that really matter are those that are formed in church settings. Or in other words, who needs a professor when you have a bishop?garyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05362826471852969332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542735367750845260.post-25133012060910054302010-03-26T11:57:50.006-07:002010-03-26T11:57:50.006-07:00I just realized that the new Freshman Mentoring pr...I just realized that the new Freshman Mentoring program is the one that you talked about in the post about how much the university should require of students, and I just can't help but thinking that by discontinuing FA while requiring everyone to enter mentoring, BYU is moving resources from students who need and choose them to students who don't need or want them. I don't see how this will improve freshman experience.<br /><br />I guess the underlying idea is that students who need mentoring most, for some reason, won't choose voluntary programs like FA. I don't know whether this is true. But even if it is, I know from my high school experience that students who don't choose their mentors easily avoid them. When mentors have 60 students to look after, it's the students who don't reach out who will get mentored less. <br /><br />That's already to some extent what happened in my FA-- our mentor got to know best the students who were involved in the Community Council and who attended outside events on a regular basis. But in the smaller FA setting we as students were able to look out for each other. That will be a lot harder in classes of 200 than it was in our class of 30.lionofzionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16356448527363112598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542735367750845260.post-45740311603308132112010-03-26T11:44:18.980-07:002010-03-26T11:44:18.980-07:00This makes me really, really sad.
I was part of ...This makes me really, really sad. <br /><br />I was part of the Freshman Academy program last semester, and most of my close friends on campus this semester are from my Freshman Academy-- there's a group of five of us who get together every week for lunch.<br /><br />I'm also still pretty close with two of the three professors we had. I've gone back to visit them several times across the semester. <br /><br />I think the great thing about Freshman academy is that, like Gary wrote last week, it offers many opportunities for connection. Invariably, many will fail. But the ones that don't will probably help students for a lifetime. <br /><br />With fewer, larger classes involved, students are simply less likely to have good connections with faculty, fellow students, or their mentors, simply because fewer chances for real connection exist. In big groups, students having problems will fall through the cracks more easily. Mentors with 60 students to worry about will connect less effectively with all. Only students who were really independently committed to building good relationships will do so (and those students probably didn't need the help of a mentoring program anyway.)<br /><br />Who made this decision, and did they ever sit down and talk with students to see how mentoring had worked for them?lionofzionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16356448527363112598noreply@blogger.com