d'ARBELOFF CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The Task Force on the Undergraduate Educational Commons in collaboration with the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education and the d'Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education is soliciting preliminary proposals for ambitious projects to enhance the first-year educational experience of our undergraduates. Early in their deliberations, the Task Force recognized that the freshman-year experience is key to helping MIT students develop a passion for learning that will endure throughout their stay at MIT, and, indeed, throughout their lives. While the Task Force has heard from many faculty the opinion that the freshman experience at MIT can be improved, few specifics have been offered.

With this year's d'Arbeloff Grant Call for Proposals , the Task Force hopes to stimulate the development of concrete educational experiments that can serve as models for future subject offerings outside the major programs. The Preliminary Call targets three areas:

• Project-based experiences
• The Freshman HASS experience
• Broadening the science and engineering fundamentals

Completed preliminary proposals are due by September 26, 2005 and should be submitted to the d'Arbeloff Grants Committee in care of Peggy Enders, Room 10-183 (peggy@mit.edu ).