Article in Allentown, Pa. Morning Call, Sept. 15, 1996

FRESHMAN SEMINARS PROVOKE THOUGHT, INSPIRE DISCUSSION

by Jodi Duckett

  The room has the feel of a lounge, with paneled and papered walls and couches
and armchairs that could easily ease a harried college freshman into a
comfortable doze.
   But the hope is that first-year Lehigh University students who attend the
class here, in the Mark Twain Room at Maginnes Hall, will find the subject
matter and atmosphere too stimulating to tune out.
   Alexis Bevington was wide awake and very perplexed during a recent afternoon
session of a course, "Ultramarathon Running."  From her chair in the circle of
20-some students, she repeatedly asked a guest speaker why he would subject
himself to the torture of running for dozens or hundreds of miles over hours or
days or weeks.
  "Why would you want to do that?  I don't understand that," she leaned forward
and challenged Mike Strzelecki, a 1985 Lehigh grad who had journeyed, by car,
from Baltimore to share his running experiences with students.
   Strzelecki, looking more like a football player than a traditionally lithe
runner, welcomed the query.  "You have to enjoy the process of running," he
explained.
   Professor Don Davis, a mathematics professor and ultramarathon runner who
teaches the course, sat in a corner of the circle with a look of satisfaction.
This is how the course--called a freshman seminar--is supposed to work.
   Freshman seminars are required for all students in Lehigh's college of arts
and sciences.  The formula goes like this: Courses are unconventional and
inspiring, classes are small and informal, professors encourage discussion and
interaction, and the atmosphere is intellectually and socially stimulating.
   "The notion is you want to have students be in courses other than these
large introductory courses, where they will be exposed to the material in a
very intimate way...so it tends not to be intimidating and boring," said Steven
Krawiec, director of the seminar program.  He said seminars are designed to
make students feel connected to each other and college and engage them early in
their college career.
   Freshman seminars and similar types of courses have been incorporated into
college curriculum nationwide in recent years.  A number of Lehigh Valley
colleges offer variations on the concept.
   For example, Muhlenberg College has mandatory seminars in which students not
only talk intensely about a subject, but write extensively about it as well.
The seminars replaced the freshman English composition class.  Lafayette
College has turned a former fraternity house into a First Year House that
features a room just for seminar classes.
   At the Allentown campus of Penn State University, 120 freshmen divided into
small groups for a 3-credit seminar on intercultural community building offered
the week before the school year commenced.  It was voluntary, but about two
thirds of the incoming class signed up.
   At Lehigh, seminar topics change from semester to semester, but students can
choose from 22 courses this semester.  Classes are limited to about 20 people
and students do not always get their first choice.
   Students clamored to sign up for "Murder," in which Chaplain Lloyd Steffen
is exploring the question, "When is killing justified?"  Another top choice was
"Personal Relationships in a Changing World," taught by college President Peter
Likins and some of the university's top administrators.  Students say it's an
opportunity to interact with the president and call him Peter.
   Davis' "Ultramarathon Running" is one of the least conventional topics.  It
may sound like a class students could glide through, but in reality it is
jam-packed with work.  Students are expected to read books on the subject, do
some running and keep a journal about their experiences, participate in
computer discussion groups with ultramarathoners, do a research paper and
attend an ultramarathon.
   Class members David Biddle and Keri Cohn have already fulfilled the last
requirement--they accompanied Davis to a 50-kilometer race in Brooklyn's
Prospect Park.  While Davis ran round and round the track, students provided
water and food to the runners and help take lap times.
   Cohn is thrilled with the seminar because she's a race walker sidelined with
a back injury.  "It's very discussion based and a really relaxed atmosphere,"
she said.  "You come here (on campus) and you're overwhelmed."
   Biddle, a volleyball player, has always considered running some kind of
punishment, but after just a few weeks of classes, he's undergoing an attitude
transformation.  "I'm real interested in the psychology because it's a real
test of mental toughness," said Biddle.  "I can't get enough of his running
stories."
   Many students still think Davis and his ultramarathon friends are quite
unusual.  But they're fascinated by his devotion and thoughtful about their
feelings towards it.
   "It's an interesting way to see how different people view different things,"
said Bevington, a basketball player.  "How I view basketball is how Professor
Davis views ultramarathon running."