First-Year Seminar Faculty: Recruitment, Supports, Motivators, and Challenges

The majority of universities and four-year colleges in the USA currently offer first-year seminars in at least one format. These programs often pride themselves in recruiting from among their institutions' best teachers to lead the seminars. In reality, this process of recruitment to teach in the program, as well as retention of faculty members who have received training and gained experience in the program, requires thoughtful strategies. Among other challenges, well-regarded faculty members often have many demands on their time already, including teaching and research. Department chairs may pressure them to focus on teaching courses that are seen as more crucial to their departments' missions. Many institutions have found that appealing to potential instructors' intrinsic motivations and building a strong sense of community among instructors help to recruit and keep groups of high-quality instructors. Those instructors are still prey to the challenges of extrinsic motivations, however. This article outlines and summarizes findings on both motivations and challenges shared by institutions across the USA.