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For SAGES, Case's innovative model for undergraduate education, the spring and summer of 2005 will seem like both a prelude and a countdown. Under the College's leadership, the program is completing a three-year pilot phase, and in the fall, it will be implemented universitywide. This means that, for the first time, an entire entering class— including students from arts and sciences, engineering, nursing, and management— will be enrolled in the Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship.
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| Kurt Koenigsberger, assistant professor of English, talks with SAGES students during a trip to the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, part of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Students from Koenigsberger's class "Traveling Cultures in Britain" visited the museum to obtain a context for essays by Virginia Woolf on the psychological and social impacts of the motorcar and airplane in the 1920s and 1930s. |
Here is an update on SAGES' preparations for launch in Fall 2005:
- SAGES has collaborated with the office of undergraduate admission to recruit students seeking a distinctive undergraduate experience. Last fall, brochures about SAGES went out to 38,000 high school students across the country, and during this spring's Experience Case days, prospective students and their families are attending mock seminars that introduce them to SAGES-style discussion. While many factors contribute to success in attracting applicants, the admission office regards SAGES as a significant draw. This year, the number of students applying to Case rose by 28 percent over last year's total, to a record-breaking 7,036.
- The renovation of quad-level Crawford Hall— the home of SAGES Central and the new SAGES café— began in March and will be completed by midsummer. This project will create a novel, highly visible center for intellectual and social activity at the heart of the Case campus. The design includes work areas and conference space for visiting fellows, faculty, and students; a glass-walled seminar room, equipped for technologically enhanced communication and instruction; and an upscale café that will serve Peet's Coffee, remain open at night, and be staffed by baristas whose expertise in preparing espresso will be matched only by their authoritative knowledge of all things SAGES.
- SAGES seminar leaders for next year will include faculty members from nearly every department in the College and all of Case's professional schools.
- The first SAGES Fellows— visiting scholars appointed by Dean Mark Turner to teach University Seminars— will arrive in August 2005. Among them will be the first Samuel M. Savin SAGES Fellow, a distinction reserved for a senior scholar with an especially distinguished record of teaching and research. For Fall 2005, the Samuel M. Savin Fellow will be Edward G. Lawry, professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University.
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chair of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University, will present a university lecture, addressed specifically to the new class of SAGES students, on September 15. Planning has also begun for a lunchtime SAGES concert on Wade Oval in mid-September.
For more information about SAGES, or to follow the progress of the Crawford Hall renovation by webcam, please visit www.case.edu/sages.
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