1999 Stanford Annual Report
Since 1995, Stanford has engaged in a program unprecedented among research-intensive universities to improve the first two years of the undergraduate experience.
Called Stanford Introductory Studies (SIS), the program has its roots in the Commission on Undergraduate Education appointed in 1993 by President Gerhard Casper. In their report, members said, “At the heart of the University's various activities, the source of its central values and fundamental aspirations, is the search for knowledge. The most important aim of undergraduate education is to involve students in this search, where teaching and learning, instruction and research, the communication and discovery of knowledge are combined in a single enterprise.”
The resulting Stanford Introductory Studies emphasizes small-group experiences with the University's most senior faculty members that help students create mentoring relationships, select a major, and participate in research and honors projects.
Among the new programs are:
• Freshman Seminars, which allow first-year students to work with senior faculty in classes of no more than 16 students;
• Sophomore Dialogues, which are tutorials enrolling no more than five students, and Sophomore Seminars, which include no more than 12 students;
• a new Freshman/Sophomore College, which allows students to live together while exploring a range of topics in the liberal arts and sciences; and
• Sophomore College, which consists of 12-student seminars held two weeks prior to the start of fall quarter.
Initiatives to enhance undergraduate education have come and gone at Stanford and other colleges and universities. What makes SIS different is the more than $25 million in seed money resulting from gifts by several donors (including trustee Peter Bing), donations to The Stanford Fund, and University funds provided by the president and provost. In addition, SIS is distinguished by the overwhelmingly positive experiences reported by senior faculty members. Efforts are now under way to raise endowment gifts for these programs, thus providing a source of continuous funding and ensuring their future.
Says President Casper, “I do not know of any other research-intensive university that has, in a similarly short period of time, undertaken as great an allocation and reallocation of resources to enhance undergraduate teaching. I believe these programs help position Stanford to offer the best undergraduate education available anywhere.”