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The Class of 2010’s First-Year Experience is featured in today’s Christian Science Monitor. The article, “Film Gives Freshmen a First Lesson,” discusses Lafayette’s efforts to promote civic discourse on sensitive topics through its summer reading and orientation program.
“During orientation, students at Lafayette College paused between the ice breakers and the talks about behaving responsibly to watch a movie,” reads the article. “Far from being an entertainment break, it was their first intellectual exercise on the Easton, Pa., campus.”
“While many colleges include a book discussion in orientation, this summer Lafayette sent out a guide to “reading” film, inviting new students to take a closer look at “Crash,” an Oscar-winning look at racial dynamics in Los Angeles,” continues the story. “After a screening at orientation in late August, they met with professors in groups of 30 to talk about everything from stereotypes to camera angles.”
In the article, Ryan Wright, a first-year African-American student from Washington, D.C., says the faculty-led discussion session about “Crash” “got his ‘brain flowing’ for the level of intense discussions he’d soon be having in philosophy class.” He added that he was “pleasantly surprised that orientation addressed diversity so directly. ‘They kind of went straight into the fire with it,’ he says. ‘It shows they take this issue seriously.'”
The complete article can be viewed here.
The story also ran in it’s entirety on the CBS News website.
Lafayette’s summer reading and orientation program was also highlighted in the August 25 edition of Inside Higher Ed in “Re-Orientation,” an article that looks at innovative ways colleges are engaging incoming students.