The purpose of the first-year seminar should be redefined to include teaching writing. This requirement doesn't necessitate excluding subjects such as math and dancing; with the ingenuity we know professors at the College possess, adding more rigorous writing assignments to these courses should not pose a problem.
The administration should set guidelines and make suggestions to help professors of first-year seminars teach writing in a more uniform manner. For instance, all first-year seminars should require all students to write an equal number of pages over the course of the semester. In addition, the descriptions of these courses in the course guide need to be less ambiguous. Incoming students choose their seminars based solely on these descriptions, and while the current blurbs are appealing, they are also vague and sometimes inaccurate.
We encourage professors of first-year seminars to be proactive in helping students to improve their writing. They should encourage their students to come to office hours and to schedule appointments to talk about their writing before and after papers are due. In addition, professors should inform students about the writing center and recommend that students make use of it over the course of the semester.
We would like to see professors offer to read drafts as well. While drafts may not have a place in upper-level classes, there is no reason to abstain from reading them in a seminar where the main goal is to teach writing. And while most professors at the College write extensive comments on papers, we think that these comments are especially important in the first-year seminar, specifically comments that focus on writing style in addition to content.
While content should not be ignored, teaching first-years how to write academic papers needs to come first. The College will do itself a service by sending its graduates out into the world with writing skills that reflect the first-rate education they have received.