9/11/96

Contact: Ted Bernard or Jon Bernard, Ohio University,
614/593-1935

ATHENS, Ohio -- Approximately 200 first-year Ohio University students will gather at 7 p.m. Sunday (Sept. 15) in Morton Hall in the first of several events designed to ease their transition to college by creating learning communities, fostering friendships and enhancing academic success.

The students, several faculty and a group of actors will participate in an interactive drama and small-group discussions based on a summer reading book that launched this year's First Year Enrichment (FYE) program. The book, Where the Buffalo Roam, by Anne Matthews, traces the controversy surrounding a proposal to create a 10-state national reserve out of the American Great Plains.

The FYE program, now in its third year, fosters active engagement that "lays the groundwork for students' success at the university," said Patricia Richard, dean of University College, which sponsors the program.

Under FYE, program coordinators offer summer reading books for free to incoming students during Precollege orientation, and host the interactive drama about issues covered in the book during the first week of classes. Later in the fall term, the authors and/or subjects of the books come to campus for public lectures and smaller sessions with participating students.

Where the Buffalo Roam author Matthews, who teaches nonfiction writing at Princeton University, will visit the Athens campus Oct. 6. She will be joined by Frank Popper and Deborah Epstein Popper, who proposed the controversial restoration of the Great Plains outlined in the book.

A two-credit FYE course also is offered, expanding on the initial program and including reading and service projects surrounding another book. This year, the class will focus on the Great Plains' problems and people; the second book will cover the Native American view of life on the Plains. The class will meet on Monday nights beginning Sept. 16 and has an enrollment of approximately 150 students.

The FYE program emphasizes critical thinking, values clarification, speaking and writing, and discussion leadership, said Ted Bernard, assistant dean of University College and FYE coordinator.

An environmental theme for the reading program was chosen for a number of reasons: a cluster of faculty with expertise in environmental topics showed early interest in the program, and "it's front-page news and critical for the survival of the Class of 2000 and beyond," Bernard said. Previous summer reading books focused on grizzly bears in the West, and the ongoing conflict between the timber industry and defenders of old-growth Pacific Northwest forests.

In addition to sharpening skills, the program fosters friendships by creating a common experience for incoming students. FYE is part of an overall University College mission to enhance the freshman year experience, and is supported by an Ohio University Foundation grant and by the Kennedy Lecture Committee.

And from now on, FYE isn't for just freshmen anymore. The program has received an Ohio University 1804 Grant that will allow it to expand from a first-year orientation program into a project on leadership development, environmental literacy and service-learning that will track participating students throughout college.

"It's intended to be multi-layered, with orientation the first year, peer mentoring the sophomore year, and combined seminars through the junior and senior years," Bernard said.

A sophomore peer mentor component to FYE was introduced last year, when 1994 FYE participants returned to help lead group discussions during the opening session and the fall quarter class.