The Winthrop College Critical Issues Symposium for freshmen is discussed, with attention to the format of the seminar, the theoretical bases, seminar goals, strategies employed, administrative and political factors, faculty development opportunities, and assessment. The symposium is designed to help freshmen become active learners, questioners, and critical thinkers, and to show them the value of discussion and learning from one another. The symposium is a required and graded two-semester, two-credit hour course that includes the concepts of challenge and support suggested by Nevitt Sanford and L. Lee Knefelkamp's seminar teaching strategies, which encourage students to be active in the classroom and allow them to explore alternative points of view on any topic. It is proposed that cognitive development as defined by William Perry and critical thinking in general should be explicit goals of a freshman seminar program. In addition to cognitive development, the course is intended to help students develop communication skills and a sense of community in both the small seminar and the college-wide contexts. The role of seminar directors is to ask questions and to encourage students to think and speak. (SW)