All first-year students matriculating Fall 2025 are required to participate in a First-year Experience, either FOCUS or Constellations.
PROPOSAL DEADLINE: November 15
Proposal Guidelines
Examples of current clusters can be found on the Focus website (focus.duke.edu) under the tab “Clusters and Courses.” The core proposal should look like the cluster and/or course information on the website.
Additional information includes (1) permissions for faculty teaching from departmental chair, (2) full course descriptions & course approvals as required by the A&S online course submission tool, and (3) identification of all majors, minors and certificates for which these courses count.
A few things to keep in mind:
1. Each cluster should have 2, 3 or 4 courses PLUS a half-credit dinner seminar.
Clusters with 3 or 4 courses are more common and preferred. Students only enroll for 2.5 credits in each cluster, regardless of the total number of courses.
2. The courses in any given Focus cluster should be from different departments with different liberal arts codes (https://trinity.duke.edu/liberal-arts-categories). Two courses from the same unit are allowed.
3. Individual courses are in one discipline, interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary.
4. Director for the cluster and teaching faculty should be identified in the proposal for clusters. Teaching in the Focus Program must be part of the faculty member’s regular course load.
5. Courses are offered by specific departments (100-level, no prerequisites), and the department is responsible for having the course approved with cross-listings by the end of the fall semester when the proposal is made (i.e. all courses must be approved and in the bulletin by January 15, 2026 for launch in Fall, 2026).
6. Focus courses are always seminars (FS suffix) and enroll up to 18 persons per course. All Focus courses count for ONE liberal arts code and when merited may have 2 codes. Focus seminars should count for majors, minors and certificates where possible.
7. Proposals have (1) a title and introductory statement describing the program, (2) full course descriptions (including all codes and cross-listings), (3) faculty name, rank and affiliation listed for each course, (4) faculty director, (5) written permissions from all involved departments and programs (chair and DUS) for points 2, 3 and 6.
8. The Focus Program Director Professor Edna Andrews is happy to facilitate your proposal development process for either a single course or cluster.
Submit proposals to eda@duke.edu