As director of the First-Year Seminar (FSEM) program and dean for administrative advising, we are excited to welcome you to the Colgate community. Please read this letter carefully, as it contains important information about the FSEM program, the Colgate Community Reads Program (i.e., “Summer Reading,”) and your first academic assignment as a Colgate student.
The FSEM program is an integral part of the first-year student experience. Each incoming student will be assigned to a First-Year Seminar, and the faculty member teaching that course will serve as your academic adviser during your first two years at Colgate, or until you declare your academic concentration (i.e., major).
Students from each FSEM will be housed together in one of Colgate’s Residential Commons. Your FSEM instructor, administrative dean, the commons leadership team, community leaders (CLs), and peer mentor (Link) will help you navigate your transition to Colgate and build strong connections within these diverse and inclusive communities. For many of our students, the connections they establish through the FSEM and their commons are the starting points for the most enduring and meaningful relationships they forge at Colgate.
First-year students will also be enrolled in a section of the Living and Learning Workshop (LLW). The LLW is a required element of Colgate’s Core Curriculum, and it aims to provide ongoing orientation for new students, enabling them to thrive throughout their time on campus. The LLW curriculum comprises five class sessions (60 minutes each) that students attend during the first half of the fall semester. These modules offer students opportunities for self-reflection, personal growth, and a thoughtful introduction to the challenges and benefits of being a responsible and involved member of the Colgate community. Though the LLW modules will not appear on your course schedule for the fall semester, you should block off the following five dates/times on your calendar: Sept. 6, 13, 20, 27, and Oct. 4, each from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m.
Your first Colgate assignment consists of two short writing exercises. While these will not be graded, your responses will be shared with your FSEM instructor, administrative adviser (i.e., dean), and LLW facilitator, so you will want to use this opportunity to make a positive first impression. You may use a spelling/grammar check tool for these exercises, but you may not use ChatGPT or other generative AI technologies. The writing you do for this assignment should be your own.
- For the first exercise, please write a brief note (one-to-two pages, double-spaced), introducing yourself to your academic and administrative advisers.
- What would you like Colgate faculty and administrators to know about you as a person and as a learner?
- How prepared do you feel to take on a transformative education over the next four years?
- What will you need from the Colgate community to ensure your success?
The second part of your assignment is to read Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond and then craft a written response (750–1000 words) to the prompt below. If you wish, you can write your response in the form of a letter addressed directly to the author, i.e., “Dear Professor Desmond …” Poverty, by America will mean different things to different readers, depending on their life experiences, personal values, and political commitments.
- What were the book's two biggest takeaways from your perspective, and if you had a chance to talk with the author about these takeaways, what questions would you ask, and what observations, analysis, or ideas of your own would you share in response?
- If you found particular lines, passages, or arguments in the book especially memorable or provocative, be sure to incorporate them in your answer and explain why they grabbed your attention.
You can access your free digital copy of Poverty, by America on Colgate’s Summer Reading website. You will also receive an email from Vital Source with a unique code to access your free e-book. We hope that this text becomes a point of intellectual contact and common interest among members of the Class of 2028.
You should submit your writing assignment via the submission form which is linked to the Summer Reading page. We recommend that you write your responses in a separate document and then copy-paste them into the form. If you have trouble accessing the form, please contact ITS (itshelp@colgate.edu; 315-228-7111).
If you have other logistical questions about the assignment, please contact Laura Billings, academic department coordinator for the FSEM program and the Division of University Studies (lcbillings@colgate.edu; 315-228-7807).
The deadline for completing this assignment is Wednesday, Aug. 7.
Once you have submitted the assignment, your responses will be distributed to your FSEM instructor, your administrative dean, and your LLW facilitator. You should also keep a copy of this assignment, as you may wish to refer back to it during the upcoming academic year.
You and your peers in the Class of 2028 are the foundation of our inclusive community — a community rooted in understanding, appreciation, and acceptance of differences. We thank you for your engagement with your first reading and writing assignments, and we warmly welcome you to our intellectual community.
Sincerely,
Alexander (Xan) Karn
Associate Professor of History
University Professor, First-Year Seminar Program
Kimberly Taylor
Dean for Administrative Advising and Student Conduct