PSU Magazine Winter 1997

m pen one new door; open many new worlds. Such might be the motto for PSU's three-year– old University Studies program, a door which students say is opening new ways of learning for them, as well as many novel perspectives. Begun in 1993, the program turns the traditional undergraduate experience upside down. Gone is the traditional game of academic hop cotch-picking up a little science here, a bit of liberal arts and social science there, collecting enough cred– its to satisfy requirements for gradua– tion. In its place are clusters of team-taught clas es for sophomores and juniors and a yearlong introduc– tory course for fre hmen, which connects different disciplines through a common theme. Beginning next year, a senior "capstone" cour e will link academic work to a community project or business out ide d1e University. erving as a foundation for Univer– sity Studies, Freshman Inquiry gets high marks from students. "It was the best class I've ever had-also the hardest," says Camille Magahay, who took the freshman course last year. "It's the kind of class I sort of dreamed of for a long time, where you're part of the curriculum," says Renee Stephens, currently taking Einstein's Universe, one of the five interdisciplinary first-year courses students can choose from. Judging by the comments of these and many other students, University Studie i a hit. National experts in the field of higher education evidently agree. Recently, PSU garnered two presti– gious national awards for its ambitious reforms. In October, the University was chosen to receive a newly created Pew Leadership Award for the Renewal of Undergraduate Education. The grant, worth 250,000, recognizes college that have taken "bold step " to rede ign their curriculum to improve undergraduate education. Of the three school receiving the award, PSU is the only public university. The others are Alverno ollege in Wisconsin and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Earlier in the summer, the University was awarded a $1.05 million grant for its reform efforts from the Kellogg Foundation Only three other institutions received similar grants. These four in titution are well on their way to bringing about a transfor- mation in education that addres soc iety's changing needs, says John Burkhardt, a Kellogg program director. Preliminary evidence al o indicates that University tudies is inspiring some students to pick PSU over other in titutions or continue on at P U. Before the new curriculum, 56.9 percent of PSU freshmen continued a second year at the Univer ity. In 1994, 62.6 percent rayed on. enee Stephens, who attended high school in Portland, ays he originally wanted to go to Marlboro College, an experimenta l and expen– sive private school. "Then I discovered I could get the same thing here with– out paying all that money," he says. Camille Magahay was also lured to the Univer ity by its new program, but for a different reason. She is one of By Jack Yost eleven P U freshmen who completed their first year of University Studies last year while eniors at Westview High School in Beaverton. "I probably wouldn't have come here otherwise," she says, "but I already had all the e credits and I didn't have to pay for them." Offering PSU' Freshman Inquiry course to high school sen iors-yet another innovation of the program- WINTER 1997 P U MAGAZINE 11