FYS is not primarily a writing course. It is the Mercer course, which introduces students to the critical and creative ambience of Mercer, to the university way of critical thinking, and to learning as a vocation. As a part of its teaching of these high subjects, FYS emphasizes seminar-style discussion and requires extensive writing.

At its best FYS incorporates:

  1.     
    1. Exploration of life questions, e.g.  Why am I here? (as the writer and farmer Wendell Berry puts it, “What are people for?”), Who do I want to be? What should I retain from my communities of origin and what should I discard?
    2. Development of the ability to make rationally-defensible and personally-authentic decisions.
    3. Exploration of the connections that exist among people, academic subjects, and the entire mosaic of life experiences. FYS is the course in which it is most likely that first-year students will be engaged in the process of negotiating their places in the adult world and dealing with loss, identity, and openness to change and difference.
  2. Exploration of ways to be active citizens. Helping students change from being dependent young adults to being an independent, individually responsible adults.
  3. The opening of minds to the world we refuse to see.  The prophetic ethos which Mercer has always embodied calls into question the assumptions of society and helps students gain a critical distance on the dominant ideologies of the time. FYS provides an environment in which it is safe to explore what we think, disagree respectfully, listen carefully to ourselves and others, and reflect thoughtfully.
  4. Reading, discussing, interpreting, and writing about engaging texts, and the teachers' flexibility to deal with issues important to students' lives that the texts raise but may not address directly.
  5. Helping students toward deeper relationships with texts and with ideas; trying to lead them out of reductive thinking and toward the more careful thought that will enable them to deal with the world of symbols rather than being helplessly susceptible to others' manipulation of symbols.
  6. Respecting all these standards.