UW-Eau Claire is offering an addition to the First Year Experience program for new students this semester.

The pilot program includes two classes this semester.

FYE Coordinator Jason Tetzloff’s History 240 course and Assistant Director Blake Westerlund’s English 110 course are the two classes chosen to participate.

“The idea was to help students bond and talk outside of class,” Tetzloff said.

The program places 20 first-year students, who live in the same residence hall, in the same course.

“These students work together, live together, eat together – they have other ties other than just class,” Tetzloff said.

The two halls selected for the program were Bridgman and Putnam halls.

The program helps students extend the classroom into their social lives, creating a bonding atmosphere, Tetzloff said.

January Boten, Putnam’s hall director, said the program especially is helpful for students away from home for the first time.

“I think that it’s one way to make the transition easier,” she said.

She also said she noticed FYE students hanging out together often, especially at the beginning of the year.

Tetzloff said he has never had such a close FYE class before and is very excited about the program.

“It is cool to see all 20 (students) walk into class together and walk out of class together,” he said. “There is a lot more connection, and that is the goal of a FYE (class).”

Tetzloff’s class consists of students from Bridgeman Hall, and Westerlund’s class encompasses students from Putnam Hall.

“I’ve lived in residence halls, and anytime you expand learning into the hall, it becomes a natural thing,” Tetzloff said. “Students are closer, and it is really simple to make connections.”

These connections can help create success in the classroom as well, he said, as students are able to ask for peer assistance with less effort. Tetzloff said peer editing is very simple when all a student has to do is walk down the hall and knock on his or her neighbor’s door.

At registration, incoming freshmen were given the option to participate in the program, and Tetzloff said he would encourage future students to partake in the program.

There is more to this program, however, than just the bonding in and out of the classroom.

The curriculum consists of numerous out-of-classroom activities for professors and students to do together.

Tetzloff said by living in the same dorm, making the time for eating together, hanging out together and studying together is a simple task.

“It is a relatively passive way of spending time together,” he said.

But Tetzloff added there are additional steps that can be taken to make the program more of a success, as the Housing and Residence Life staff has yet to be involved.

Tetzloff said, that although the staff isn’t in on it yet, the housing office is very supportive of the program.

“It is an inexpensive addition to academics and campus life,” he said. “This is a very successful program.”