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IT'S LONELY BEING an undecided major at a school with 14,000 undergraduates. So lonely that the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences has decided to do something about it. Last fall, it unveiled USC Learning Communities, a program aimed at engaging entering freshmen.
The idea is elegantly simple. Each Learning Community is composed of 20 freshmen, who take two courses together: one introducing a possible minor or major, another satisfying a General Education requirement.
Every group has its own faculty mentor and staff adviser. The students also get together for monthly dinners in the residential colleges, hear guest speakers and go on field trips. The program receives financial support from the Provost’s Office.
Approximately 300 students are expected to sign up this fall for Learning Communities, says director of undergraduate programs Katharine Harrington. Groups will be arranged around six themes: word, image and culture; media and public life; law and social theory; human behavior and culture; and medicine, technology and natural sciences.
RESEARCH SHOWS that undeclared majors are at greatest risk of failing to graduate. USC officials hope the Learning Communities will help undecided students transition smoothly into a major, Harrington says. The program is modeled after a similar one at University of Oregon, which has proved successful in helping students form social networks, increase their campus involvement and improve their aca-demic performance.
“Our expectations are the students will connect more strongly to the university,” Harrington says. “We hope they will be able to explore university resources more thoroughly, identify a major more quickly and successfully complete their undergraduate education.”
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