Wayne State University is undertaking a broad-based effort, initiated by Provost Nancy S. Barrett, to enhance the quality of undergraduate studies and the "first year experience." This Saturday, March 6, the university will host 300 incoming students at Scholars Day, in the Community Arts Auditorium.

These merit-based scholarship recipients will meet with representatives of Wayne's schools and colleges, talk to faculty and alums, and tour the campus. Their parents will attend a get-acquainted presentation with panelists from admissions, financial aid, public safety and the university library system. Everyone meets for lunch in the university's new Welcome Center.

At Scholars Day students can apply for admission to the university's Honors Program, which offers undergraduates personal attention usually associated with small, selective, private colleges. Honors offers this close-knit academic community amid its five libraries, archives, laboratories and all the facilities of a large, urban, research university. Honors students are piloting a range of new educational opportunities that the university wants to make available to all undergraduate students.

The Detroit Fellows, initiated by Honors, is a service-learning project that allows students to earn course credit while helping others. One group of Fellows is involved in a tutoring program that puts them in a Detroit public elementary school; another group is working with Habitat for Humanity.

A student tutor said, "I like to see children learn how to read and build their self-esteem. I didn't do very well in elementary school and didn't think I was very smart. I would love to help children much like I was, so they can have the confidence to achieve more in school."

Saturday's program reaches out to students and parents, welcomes them to the university, and makes sure that they see the very best of Wayne State. One of the most popular elements of the new emphasis on "first year" is freshman seminars.

The 15-student seminars - led by the university's best professors - allow participants to discuss hot topics including: The Past in the Present: The Holocaust in Art and Film; The Contemporary French: Why are the French So...; What's Going On: The Poetry and Music of Detroit; The Human Zoo: From 19th Century Freak Shows to 21st Century Cultural Tourism; and Skunk Works: The Habitat of Creative People. (For a complete list of course descriptions go to First Year Seminars Fall 2004)

Undergraduates are being engaged in university research, and an annual conference will showcase student projects. Soon, a group of WSU students will present their work to legislators in Lansing, and in April, students will travel to the invitation-only National Conference on Undergraduate Research to present their work.

"We want undergraduate students to experience a comprehensive research, institution -- with the hands-on care they deserve," said Jerry Herron, director of the Honors Program and interim assistant provost.

Recruitment is under way for WSU's new MedStart program, which will place select freshmen on a special Honors/PreMed track. MedStart students are assured a seat in the School of Medicine, if they complete a special undergraduate curriculum. MedStart is part of the university's emphasis on Learning Communities, some of which will take advantage of new, undergraduate residence halls (two open now, one more under construction).

Learning Communities unite students and teachers around common interests, allowing commuter students to feel the connectedness that residential students enjoy. They also showcase the neighborhood. "Detroit is a diverse, global city with great cultural resources," said Herron. "There's a real sense of excitement and renewal on campus thanks to our new residence halls, the Welcome Center and the Recreation and Fitness Center. We want our students to join a great city in progress, so we're going to bring the kids down and show them how this is the coolest place around to study."

Wayne State University Provost Nancy Barrett will be available for media interviews Saturday, March 6, at Scholars Day.