The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay announced it would expand a program aiming to create smaller introductory classes for its first-year students for the 2007 academic school year.

The program, which provides students with more one-on-one attention from professors, was first implemented in 2006.

The program started at UW-Green Bay is similar to the Freshman Interest Group — or FIG — program at UW-Madison.

According to a press release from UW-Green Bay, six faculty members participated in creating the new class format last year.

The faculty agreed to split at least one of their general education classes of 90 to 120 students into sections of no more than 25.

The aim of this program is to approach problems from multiple perspectives and is in compliance with UW-Green Bay's interdisciplinary campus.

"[The program] was wonderful," said Scott Furlong, a UW-Green Bay professor of public and environmental affairs. "We got to work with much smaller groups of students and get to know them a little bit."

Not only were the classes smaller, the students were familiar with each other and their professor from orientation, according to Denise Bartell, assistant professor of human development.

"The faculty acted as counselors at orientation — a sort of advisor position, so we knew the students when they came to class," Bartell said. "It is much less intimidating to come to a class when you have a personal relationship with your teacher and peers."

Furlong said the goal of the smaller classes was to increase positive feelings about the student experience at UW-Green Bay, as well as to improve student retention, increase the level of faculty-student interaction and assist students with extracurricular involvement.

According to Furlong, the program allowed faculty to move from a purely lecture-based class to one allowing more "free-flowing discussion."

"We are able to explore issues, which is very valuable to the students and for faculty, and is something I hope to do more of," Furlong said.

Furlong added the overall feedback from the inaugural semester demonstrated the effectiveness of the new program.

Students expressed a higher degree of interaction with faculty members and increased efficacy related to seeking help and guidance — both academically and socially — among professors and peers, Bartell said.

Since the program is in its infancy, Bartell said no concrete changes have been made to the plan for fall 2007. However, he added there were both useful and negligible aspects — as well as new proposals for additions –next year.

"We would like to add classes specifically designed for this program," Bartell said. "Also, we have talked about the addition of peer mentors in the classroom. These would be seniors who could give information to incoming students that would hold more weight than it would from a professor."

Kari Fernholz, coordinator of first-year interest groups at UW-Madison, said she was not aware of the program at Green Bay, but added she believes the program is beneficial.

"I think there are benefits for every university that uses this sort of program," Fernholz said. "The students get to know each other and can form study groups, and it brings a smaller feel to large campuses."