Students praise improved course content, peer leaders
This fall, Notre Dame launched its redesigned Moreau First-Year Seminar (FYS). Led by Wilsey Professor of Theology William Mattison, the revised curriculum seeks to foster deeper discussion among students and emphasizes the university’s Catholic character. The new curriculum has been welcomed by professors and upperclassmen, though current first-years hold divided opinions on the program.
Notre Dame first began requiring the Moreau first-year course in 2015. According to Mattison, the original Moreau course was created to replace a physical education course previously required by the university. Mattison told the Rover, “The curriculum was not unconscionable, but it wasn’t strong at all.”
In the previous Moreau course, taken over two semesters, students discussed topics including root beliefs, suffering, “resume” vs. “eulogy” virtues, exclusion and barriers, race, and consent.
In designing the new Moreau curriculum, Mattison said that the university completely reconsidered the course’s content. He explained, “They wanted to revamp the program and make it more fitting for a Notre Dame credit-bearing graded part of the curriculum.”
New to this Moreau curriculum is the Moreau Commonplace Book. As Mattison told the Rover, “The idea is that the Commonplace Book would gather readings and [provide a] space to reflect on them.” He continued, “There’s great voices: Aristotle and C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King [and] Helen Keller. You got to wrestle with these voices. You can agree with them or not, but it’s not a blank slate.”
The new curriculum also features peer leaders, who share “testimonials” to show how course material may be applied to life as a Notre Dame student. Mattison commented that these peer leaders “might be the most successful part of the course.”
Junior engineering student Owen Diamond shared his experience as a peer leader with the Rover, saying, “It has been deeply rewarding to reflect on my own growth throughout my time at Notre Dame while guiding first-year students through the beginning of theirs.”
The new curriculum also requires students to choose and attend multiple co-curricular events throughout the semester. These events include tours of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, poetry readings, and campus retreats. The previous Moreau curriculum included similar activities, though they occurred during class time. Mattison explained the reason for making them co-curricular, saying, “As opposed to having a class day at Father Ted’s office and another . . . walking around and seeing the Holy Cross sites on campus, we’re trying to do things during class time that invite students to intellectually wrestle with those things.”
The initial impressions of the new curriculum have been favorable, particularly among those familiar with the prior model. Moreau peer leader David Rae told the Rover, “In my opinion, this new course model does a better job of meeting students where they are at and encouraging them to engage with the material and with each other in a more personal way that I hope will shape their time at Notre Dame in positive ways.” Rae concluded, “I would have loved to have been able to take this Moreau.”
Natalie Ceonzo, who also serves as a peer leader, criticized the original Moreau course’s assignment model, specifically the usage of “QQCs,” in which students selected a quote, asked a question related to the material, and connected it to their lives. Ceonzo argued that the QQC had “no limits, no directions, [and] no wrong answers” and “ . . . if anything is game, a student only gets as much as he gives—and most of us freshmen did not give much of anything if we didn’t have to.”
Ceonzo emphasized the direction the new curriculum provides students. “Moreau now has the ability to orient students towards not just any growth, but growth in line with the university’s Catholic character,” she explained.
In the new curriculum, students read the Congregation of Holy Cross Constitutions and writings from authors such as St. Francis of Assisi and Servant of God Dorothy Day.
Moreau faculty are similarly supportive of the change. Professor Forrest Spence, who has taught both Moreau curriculums, told the Rover, “I’ve always enjoyed teaching Moreau, but find that the new material and format is an easier platform to generate meaningful discussion.”
While professors and upperclassmen seem supportive of the change, the opinions of current first-years are divided. Keenan Hall freshman Benedict Althoff told the Rover over email, “I have thoroughly enjoyed the Moreau program here at Notre Dame. I believe it does well to summarize the credo of the university.”
However, Althoff added, “Many times having to read and write a reflection is just another burden on top of our schoolwork. It can sometimes take awhile to read the texts, watch the videos, and write a reflection.”
Keough Hall freshman Ben Anderson was similarly conflicted. When asked his thoughts on his peer leader by the Rover, Anderson responded, “[Her] constant energy is nice to bring to a class that most people, including myself, view as another thing they have to do.”
In addition to their required co-curricular events, all first-year students attended “The Moreau Signature Event,” an address by Notre Dame President Father Robert Dowd, C.S.C. on the topic of hope on Tuesday, October 7.
In his address, Fr. Dowd told students to consider, “What does it mean to hope, to hope in God?” and “How can we cultivate hope on and beyond this campus?” He compared his struggles in baseball as a child to the “slumps” encountered in ordinary life.
“It [often] takes someone to help us to snap out of these slumps,” Fr. Dowd continued. “It takes someone to help us to believe . . . that regardless of the struggle in our lives and the world around us, God will always be with us, and, in the end, God’s love wins.”
Fr. Dowd then pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the exemplar of hope and called students to emulate her, saying, “She lived in an occupied land, and despite the injustice, violence, and all that her people endured, she believed.” He continued, “She leaves room for God and she leaves room for others and, because of this, she is quite literally pregnant with promise and possibility.”
Students interested in applying for a position as a peer leader can visit the Moreau First-Year Seminar website.
Andrew Blake is a sophomore in Keough Hall studying political science. He can be reached at ablake5@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Moreau First-Year Seminar
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