Since Fall 2018, we have been offering “passion” courses (First-Year Signature Courses) each fall semester to incoming first-year students. The intent of these courses was to build student engagement and academic rigor in the very first semester here at Oswego. Studies show that engaged students are retained at a high level at most institutions (Barefoot, 1993; Tinto, 1997; Kuh, et. al, 2005).
We ran 13 such courses this past fall, which you can find described on this website.