Siena University Core Requirements

The University Core is divided into three areas:

First Year at Siena Seminar (FYSM 100 and FYSM 101) is a two-semester sequence for first-year students taught by the same faculty member to the same small group of students each semester. There are sections of each class for transfer students who enter Siena with fewer than 24 credits earned while matriculated at another college or university. There are four themes for the yearlong sequence: Heritage (fall), Natural World (fall), Diversity (spring), and Social Justice (spring).

Within each section offered, there are some common interdisciplinary readings plus an introduction to the stories of St. Francis and St. Clare. The values of Francis and Clare are interwoven throughout the year. Each faculty member teaching the course chooses the remaining readings and brings coherence to the section under a theme and title- for example, Human Rights, Utopias/Dystopias, or Environmental Storytelling. 

First Year at Siena Seminar prepares students for the intellectual life of college: how to read critically, how to engage with a text, how to articulate an informed position on big questions, how to write clearly and persuasively, how to voice an opinion in a classroom conversation, how to make connections between and among the readings they are doing, the subjects they are studying, as well as between Siena and the outside world. FYSM is an important and required foundational core course sequence. If students fail (earn a grade of F or U) FYSM 100 (Fall Semester) or FYSM 101 (Spring Semester), they will be enrolled in a specially designated section of the course in the semester immediately following the unsuccessful completion of FYSM 100 and/or FYSM 101. 

There are no substitutions for FYSM 100 and FYSM 101. If an F or U is earned in FYSM 100 or FYSM 101, that grade will remain on a student’s transcript and continue to count in calculating the student’s GPA until the course is successfully retaken. Because there is a procedure for replacing a failing grade in FYSM 100 and FYSM 101, students should not withdraw from the course(s) unless they are withdrawing from all courses that semester and/or from the University. 

First Year at Siena Seminar 24+ Transfer (FYSM 200):  This condensed First Year at Siena Seminar is for transfer students admitted to Siena with 24 or more credits earned while matriculated at another college or university. The one semester course covers all four Franciscan concerns and all required course readings. The goals of the course are to introduce transfer students to the story that is unique to Siena University and our Franciscan heritage and to reinforce critical thinking, reading, and communication skills vital to life-long learning.