Indiana University announced it will discontinue Intensive First-Year Seminars (IFS) in an abrupt end to the over 30-year-old program.
IFS was a transition-to-college program for first-year students which began a few weeks before the start of the fall semester, according to the IFS website.
Prior to their start to college, incoming freshmen could participate in a three-credit course, working with faculty and participating in an academic forum that would help connect them to IU’s resources and prepare them for college, according to the IFS website.
IFS had courses specifically tailored to students with merit or need-based scholarships like Hudson & Holland and 21st Century Scholars, as well as students in the Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Experience.
At the Bloomington Faculty Council (BFC) meeting Oct. 1, one member asked Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Vasti Torres for clarification about whether or not Torres made the decision to end IFS.
“I made the decision to reallocate resources,” Torres said.
According to Torres, the role that IFS had is being “transformed and redesigned” for all students, but she did not give specifics.
Impact of IFS
Some courses for the 2024 program were “Arts of War,” taught by professor Marco Arnaudo; “Blood, Babies, and Chainsaws: Gender in/as Horror,” taught by Jennifer Maher, clinical professor and director of undergraduate studies for gender studies; “Queer Activism and Public Issues” taught by associate professor A. Freya Thimsen; and “Happy Hoosiers: Exploring Nature, Heritage and Health,” taught by lecturer Brian Forist.
“There’s just a different kind of bond that you can build in (the intensive format),” Thimsen said. “It allows you to build knowledge in a different way.”
Thimsen said she has observed “life-changing impacts” in her IFS class. Most students in the class, she said, identify as part of the queer community and come from places that aren’t supportive of or are aggressive toward their identities. The class taught them about the history of queer politics and helped them “build community with each other.”
She said students have emailed her to say the connections made in the course became the foundation for their time at IU.
IFS professors learned IU was canceling the program at a “debriefing meeting,” according to Arnaudo. Torres announced that the university was ending the program at this meeting.
“I've rarely seen faculty cry at faculty meetings,” Arnaudo said. “Everybody in the room was extremely upset, angry, devastated or crying.”
Arnaudo, who has taught in the program for over 10 years, said with how passionate IFS professors are, Torres’ approach to breaking the news was “unprofessional” and without warning. He said he wishes the university had consulted them on how to handle any problems with the program instead of ending it completely without a fully formed replacement program.
“It’s devastating for the real-life impact that it will have on hundreds of students,” Arnaudo said.
To Arnaudo, IFS is an especially important program because it benefits first-generation college students. He said the seminar helped acclimate them to college and living on a college campus. Arnaudo was a first-generation student.
“My experience starting college in another town with no friends, not knowing how things work was extremely disorienting. So much so that I got depressed and overwhelmed, and I dropped out of college,” he said. “Then I went back, and I was able to make it that time. So, I know how difficult it can be if you're a first-generation student from a low-income background, how hard it can be to make the transition.”
Arnaudo said he doesn’t think he would have dropped out if he had the opportunity to go through a program like IFS.
For first-generation students, IFS is a valuable time to learn what is expected of them in college and meet people, and without it, Arnaudo said, many will have a “rocky start and may not complete” the semester.
Brian Forist, who teaches in IU School of Public Health’s Department of Health and Wellness Design, said IFS was “special” and taught students “colleging 101.”
He was turning in his IFS grades and writing a note to his teaching assistant when he learned the program was discontinued Friday.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said. “It was a gut punch.”
He said he now realizes the impact IFS had on faculty.
“These people — my colleagues — aren’t just teaching their IFS courses,” he said. “Their experience influences how they teach, and they become ambassadors in their departments and schools for a more student-centered, intensive, contextual approach in learning and teaching.”
Forist has taught for IFS since 2020 and reflected on his four years with the program.
He said a student took his IFS class in 2020, became one of his teaching assistants, graduated last year and is now a park ranger and pursuing a master’s degree at IU.
“To see a student from her first day of college to park ranger has been a source of incredible joy,” he said.
One of his favorite memories came when he gave the faculty address for the IFS closing ceremony last year.
“In that talk, I offered a charge to the students, but I also offered a charge to my peers and that was, ‘I’ve heard you say this is the best of teaching on IU’s campus. This is how teaching should be.’ And I said, ‘Then make it so,’” Forist said.
Maher said IFS is a program that sticks with students, saying that many refer to it as one of the best college experiences that they had at IU.
According to Maher, a student from her IFS class in 2018 messaged her this year on Facebook about the impact the course had on her.
“Your class/IFS was one of my favorite parts of undergrad. I met some of my best friends through there, and it helped mold my academic career,” the student wrote in the message. “I know others in our cohort feel the same.”
Faculty react to cancellation
Maher, Arnaudo, Thimsen and Forist all said that IFS professors were not consulted prior to the decision.
“It was one of the most disrespectful meetings I’ve ever been to in my life in terms of how I was treated as an educator,” Maher said. “In fact, (Torres) didn’t refer to us as educators, she referred to us as stakeholders.”
At the BFC meeting, Torres said she had met with Tanya Koontz Orbaugh, director of IFS, who said IFS faculty were meeting the next day. She then decided to announce it at that meeting Sept. 27.
“That is why it rolled out in the manner it did,” Torres said. “It is not my usual manner.”
In the meeting, Arnaudo said, the university told them that they wanted to have a college readiness program that served all students.
Mark Bode, IU executive director for media relations, referred the Indiana Daily Student to a statement from Torres.
“Throughout the years, the Intensive First-Year Seminar has benefitted approximately 9% of our beginner students annually, and our goal is to reimagine a program that serves 100% of our beginner students,” Torres said in the statement.
According to Torres, the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education is working with Bloomington Faculty Council leadership to “identify the next steps” in creating a first-year program that serves all beginner students.
In the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting Oct. 1, BFC members asked Torres what role the BFC had in the decision to end IFS. They also asked if any BFC members were aware that creating a new first-year program would include ending IFS.
“The collaboration with BFC was around the creation of the first-year seminar learning objectives,” Torres said. “No, (BFC) were not consulted on the change of the IFS.”
Torres said in her original statement that students in a pilot of this new seminar this semester reported that their participation was “helping them learn about the educational journey, transition to college and feel acclimated to campus.”
She also said during the BFC meeting Tuesday that “IFS could be part of the picture, but not in its current financial resource intensive way.”
Torres said in the statement the redesigning of the first-year seminar would connect the program with faculty by giving them a chance to “be involved in the important work of supporting our students in their transition to IU Bloomington.”
“None of us knew, nor were consulted about the Intensive First-Year Seminar and its status,” Danielle DeSawal, president of the BFC, said. “We learned on Friday, just as everyone else learned on Friday.”
To Thimsen, IFS is already accessible to all students. She said the program had around 800 students in its courses each year.
“I think that requiring all of the undergraduates who are coming to IU to take a remedial study skills course just shows a level of disrespect for the undergraduate students and their capacities,” Thimsen said. “The students are going to resent it right off the bat.”
Thimsen said she does not think the new program is an appropriate replacement for IFS. To her, it represents the “cheapening of undergraduate education at IU.”
Arnaudo said he wants the administration to bring IFS back amid the disapproval of professors but doesn’t think it is likely under the current administration.
“We’ve seen the last couple of months, faculty opinions are treated like they don’t matter,” he said.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the Hudson & Holland scholarship is merit-based.
