Freshman Orientation Week concluded last night in a packed Leede Arena with a lecture by English professor William Cook on the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass."
The Committee on the First-Year Experience and the orientation subcommittee revived the idea of a freshman lecture and reading for the Class of 1998.
The College offered the freshman lecture a few years ago, but discontinued it because some faculty members did not feel prepared to give the book an adequate representation, according to Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith.
But this year administrators felt the freshman lecture would make orientation more academic.
"The freshman lecture is an experience that '98s can share when they convene," Goldsmith said. "It fulfills the academic mission of orientation and conveys the pleasure found in good conversation."
"There was some concern that freshman orientation was too administrative and focused too much on the freshmen trips," said discussion leader Carl Thum, who is also the director of the Academic Skills Center.
Some freshmen responded enthusiastically to the idea of a freshman lecture, as well as to Cook's presentation of the lecture.
"I think that it's great to have a discussion about a book," Mary Malic '98 said. "Professor Cook was an intelligent lecturer."
"Professor Cook was the ideal one to do the lecture," Dean of the Faculty James Wright said. "He is an exceptional member of the faculty and widely desired by students."
Other freshmen found the lecture complicated and geared to a more educated level. They said they felt Cook dealt with the language of the text rather than the major themes.
The book chosen was a 100-page slave narrative on the life of freed slave Frederick Douglass. Cook developed on the auditory and classical rhetoric of the subject.
"The book is an initiation narrative that became a model for various other texts," Cook said in the lecture. "Douglass' manipulation of language gives the range of verbal strategies of the African American voice."
Cook said the narrative was one of the great books of modern literature that offered an "initiation into the interpretive nature" of books.
"I chose the narrative because it is one of the great books," Cook said. "I think the idea of a freshman lecture is a wonderful idea because it offers a chance to begin the year with a common intellectual experience."
After the lecture, freshmen met with other undergraduate advisor groups and faculty advisers to discuss the lecture.
