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Upon entering DePaul in the fall, each first-year student is required to take either an Explore Chicago or a Discover Chicago course. These courses make up what is termed the Chicago Quarter. The Chicago Quarter offers a unique opportunity for faculty to take an already existing area of scholarly expertise (e.g., in music, murals, unions, stock markets, AIDS, Latino writers, etc.), or to develop an entirely new area of interest (e.g., in film, baseball, plant science, adventure sports, photography, etc.), and turn it into an academic course of study. Alternatively, faculty can clone or modify an already existing Chicago Quarter course. Chicago Quarter courses can address historical or contemporary issues, and can be taught from either a disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. While Discover and Explore Chicago classes similarly investigate topics related to Chicago, there are differences in the two sets of courses. Explore Chicago courses are offered during the regular Autumn Quarter. There are 30 hours of instruction, and an additional 10 hours to accommodate the co-curricular component known as Common Hour. Instructors are expected to utilize various pedagogical methods including lectures, discussion, small group formats, and service learning. These courses are also to have an experiential component, and faculty are required to take students into the city a minimum of 3 times to witness first hand its many libraries, archives, museums, galleries, voluntary organizations, and business institutions. Faculty members are expected to engage in some informal advising with all their students and have some knowledge about how to refer them to various campus resources. Advising for students who are undeclared is handled by the Office of Academic Advising Support. An important feature of Explore Chicago courses is that they are taught by a team, consisting of the facaulty member, and a student leader, the latter of whom has taken (and continues to take) a special mentoring course designed to help in the preparation of teaching the Common Hour aspects of the course. Instructors should anticipate working closely with the student mentor in designing the course. In particular, the student mentor is expected to teach and grade the co-curricular component of the course. One hour every week, for a total of 10 hours over the quarter, the student mentor is expected to assume responsibility for teaching first-year students how to build community, manage time and stress levels, raise awareness of diversity concerns, and in general, deal with issues of transitioning into university life. Throughout the quarter most instructors assign primary source readings, and have their students keep a journal, and write one or two short research papers. Since one of the goals of Explore Chicago courses is to promote group-based learning, many instructors also ask students to complete some sort of final group project (e.g., a zine, a photography exhibit, poster presentations, etc.). II. Meeting Liberal Studies Program Goals As the introductory courses in the First-Year Program, Explore Chicago courses should reflect central goals of the larger Liberal Studies Program at DePaul. Its objectives include developing reflectiveness and value consciousness, fostering critical and creative thinking, and incorporating a multicultural perspective. Although the Explore Chicago program is designed with a great deal of flexibility, all courses must also:
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