How did FICs/learning communities come to exist?
The creation of FICs as a step “forward” is actually a move toward the original design of historically traditional college campuses such as Oxford and Cambridge in England. Students were assigned to houses based on their majors and led by faculty members who lived with, educated and mentored their students within a more personalized relationship. SIUE FICs are designed to recreate some of the intentionality of these pioneering environments. The modern day concept of learning communities had roots in an experimental program during the 1920’s at the University of Wisconsin where a professor designed a program to combat the new system in higher education where students chose from electives to create their general education curriculum. There was concern that choosing electives challenged the interdisciplinary nature of a university education. This initiative was short-lived; however the concept was revitalized in the 1960’s when veterans returning from the war doubled the enrollment at Ame
