Ideas: Institutions of Excellence in the
From The Policy Center on the First
Year of College, which was engaged during 2002 in a national study to identify
and describe through in-depth case studies a variety of "Institutions of
Excellence in the First College Year. Here are examples for the study.
IDEAS: FRESHMEN YEAR
ADVISING and ORIENTATION:
SUCCESS PROGRAMS:
SUMMER BRIDGE PROJECTS:
FACULTY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
ACDAEMIC SUPPORT:
1. Mentoring. This past year the LaGuardia CC instituted
a program to create a cadre of mentors for first-year students consisting of
advanced students, faculty/staff, and alumni. Mentors are asked to assist
students in finding their way through the system and are trained on how to
connect students with support services on campus.
2.
Technology: First-year
programs (LaGuardia CC) are now being enhanced through the use of educational
technology. The College is instituting electronic portfolios for all students;
the portfolio is being introduced in FIGs and other
freshman learning communities. In addition, a program in “online tutoring” for
first-year students is being piloted this semester.
3.
Early Identification
of Students with Learning Disabilities or Special Needs: New students indicate items on the New Student Survey in which
they wish to be contacted by the Office of Special Student Services for
assistance with a disability or impairment. (University of Oklahoma)
4.
Teaching Teams Program:
The preceptor program exemplifies students taking responsibility for their own
learning. Students work on teams with the faculty, hold office hours to assist
their fellow students with projects and conduct classroom activities some of
which they design themselves to liven up the classes. Undergraduate preceptors
allow faculty to keep their finger on the pulse of real students in their
classes. Often this leads to significant innovation and change in their
teaching.
5.
Multicultural Programs
and Services Unit: For two decades UArizona has
provided support for minority access via a formal administrative unit. Programs
and cultural centers for each of our major minority ethnic groups (Black,
Asian, Hispanic, and Native American) are centralized under this unit which
provides support for the transition to college for minority and
first-generation students. Each culture center provides a neighborhood for one
particular ethnic group.
6.
Peer Tutoring: Peer
tutors are utilized extensively in tutoring programs.
7.
The Freshman Year
Center: The focus for all new students for academic advising, tutoring, and
major exploration.
8.
Tutoring and Learning
Center (TLC): In addition to offering individualized and small group
tutoring and study skills opportunities, the TLC employs many students in peer
tutor roles. Supplemental Instruction (SI) has expanded to include many
more opportunities for additional instruction in high-risk courses. (Univ of Texas)
COMMON FRESHMEN
ACTIVITIES:
1.
Common Reading.
Another new effort this past year to create a shared intellectual experience
for first-year students was the establishment of a freshman theme (“Personal
Narrative and Memoir”) and common reading (“Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years”). Faculty-led
discussions of the text were built into Opening Sessions for new students.
2.
Courses in Common:
Student participants sign up for a common schedule of general education courses
and attend class together, thus creating a small learning community.
(University of Arizona)
3.
The Freshman
Convocation The evening before classes freshmen attend a ceremony in which the
President of the Uof Arizona inducts them into campus
citizen ship.
4.
First Year Inquiry (FYI) - a program designed to increase students'
critical thinking skills, featuring faculty-led general education courses and
seminars that employ inquiry-guided learning in small classes for first year
students. (North Carolina State Univ)
5.
A full-time Director for the First year Experience Program initiative
whose sole charge was to maintain the campus' intensity of purpose and to
encourage and support coordinated approaches to problem solving among faculty
and student services staff. (Univ of Minnesota)
6.
The merger of the
Office of New Student Programs with the Office of the First Year Experience in
order to provide a seamless transition for incoming first year students.(Univ of Minnesota)
7.
One of the major
recommendations from the original First year Experience Project Team was to
ensure that all First year Experience program efforts are inclusive of
diversity issues. (Univ of Minnesota)
8.
The new FLC program has
created synergy and has produced some exciting interdisciplinary collaboration
among faculty of different disciplines, departments and colleges. (Georgia
State University)
9.
Interdisciplinary
Perspectives Courses. (Georgia State University)
10. The Book Connection: NKU's summer reading
program creates a shared reading experience for new students. This
co-curricular program (entering its 3rd year) draws support from Student
Affairs, Academic Affairs, and the University Development Office (which secured
a corporate donor who buys the books and provides the writer's honorarium). A
May faculty forum brings together 60 freshmen instructors from across
disciplines to generate ways to use the book in their classes. Freshman
attendance at the writer's lecture in 2001 was 1200-the largest audience ever
for a freshman event.
11. Large and Diverse Learning Community Program: The LC Program typically links popular general studies
courses that most students take in their first year as well as UNV 101. A
number of Learning Communities develop particular themes ("Exploring the
Arts," "The Underground Railroad") and some focus on the needs
of particular sub-populations of freshmen (African-American, Latino, and
Evening/Adult, & Honors). "RunningStart,"
a Learning Community for students who need two or more developmental courses,
builds in academic assistance to improve the rate of success for freshmen in
developmental courses. (NKU)
12. The Honors program consists of a Joint Enrollment Honors
program and the Honors program for entering students. Seniors with exceptional
grades and potential have the opportunity to be a part of our Joint Enrollment
Honors program. The Honors program has won honors in the state for its
continued excellence in programming and in its across-campus
collaborations. Students and faculty rate these programs as some of the
strongest on this campus. (Kennesaw State Univ)
13. The ESOL Conversation Partners program connects first year
international students with students and faculty from this country in a
semester long mentoring/partnership. This program helps international
students transition into KSU and also helps current students, faculty, and
staff form linkages and friendships with students from other countries.
Building and facilitating these partner conversations is rewarding for everyone
as well as improving both retention and success of international students.
(Kennesaw State Univ)
14. Academic
Investment in Math and Sciences (AIMS) is
designed to increase the number of well-prepared women and students of color
who graduate from the University with majors in mathematics, computer and
natural sciences. AIMS students begin
their experience the summer before matriculation and throughout the entire four
years of college work to strengthen their academic skills and to develop their
professional and leadership traits required for advancement in mathematics and
the sciences. (Bowling Green State Univ)
15. Library and Learning Resources has a full-time First Year Experience Librarian dedicated
exclusively to meeting the needs of first-year students. In addition to individual and group
instruction available in BGSU library facilities, the First Year Experience
Librarian develops library curriculum for a variety for first-year student
courses. (Bowling Green State Univ)
16. Career & Life
Planning course is a two-credit hour course
where students assess personality, interests, values, aptitudes, and abilities
as they begin to explore the world of work and how to prepare for it. Students who complete this course are more
informed about their academic and occupational choices and are more focused
with their career goals. (Bowling Green State Univ)
17. Freshmen
Connections: No other program at Ball State
has so clearly demonstrated collaborative undergraduate teaching, faculty
development efforts, and a measurable link between effective teaching and
student performance than Freshman Connections
18. Freshmen Writing Program: Recognizing that the incoming
student population was often under prepared for the rigors of college reading
and writing, full and part-time faculty collaborated in dramatically
restructuring the freshman writing program. Composition studies were
separated from literary studies in an early example of what became a national
trend during the 1990s. The new curriculum moves students through a carefully
sequenced series of writing tasks, which require them to make intellectual
connections. Students move from writing personal narrative, to
conceptualizing those experiences in terms of historical and cultural
determinants. Thematic readings lead to analysis of cultural and
linguistic developments as they emerge over time. (Univ
of Hartford)
19. An innovative peer advisor program provides general academic
advising to first-year students as well as individual outreach to this
population. Within the first few weeks
of school, peer advisors call every first-year student to inquire about any
adjustment or academic concerns. Peer
advisors follow-up personally and also make appropriate referrals. (Univ of Denver)
20. First-year students have the opportunity to become involved
in the DU Honors program in three ways, the Honors Living and Learning
Community, the Coordinated Humanities Program, and out of classroom
programming. All three of these areas
are designed to cultivate an intellectual community both within and outside of
the classroom. (Univ Denver)
21. Our First-Year English program is comprised of three
required courses, which include in-class and out of classroom forums for growth
and development in the areas of critical reading and writing, persuasive
argument and research, and literature.
First-Year English often supports campus activities by creating writing
assignments related to guest speakers or other campus events. Community service options are available in
select sections of First-Year English, which allow students to base their
research project on their volunteer work. (Univ of
Denver)
22. First-year Interest Groups (FIGs),
which links two or three first-year level courses from the General Education
curriculum in order to provide undergraduates with a sense of community among
themselves and with faculty, to emphasize connections between disciplines and
to build more productive relationships. Dedicated faculty work together
to meet the needs of first-year students by encouraging study groups, providing
opportunities for out-of-class interaction and offering a more cohesive
academic experience. Univ of Central Ark.
23. Freshman Critical Writing/Reading is a required,
three-credit seminar on academic topics taught by faculty from across
disciplines. Taken in fall or spring, the course emphasizes textual
analysis and intensive writing instruction (six papers). Topics include:
"Gods, Myths, and Values" and "DNA: An Owner's
Manual." The seminar grounds freshmen in rigorous liberal arts
curriculum while providing small-group instruction (20-24 students) in
college-level writing and reading. (Texas A&M)
24. The Minority Support Program is designed to recruit and then
provide academic and personal support for minority students. The program
is based on an assertive and supportive advising approach at both the
individual and group levels. This highly successful program (1999
retention rate of 85% as compared to the majority population rate of 71.2%) has
been recognized nationally and is being replicated at other institutions.
(Southeast Missouri State Univ)
25. The General Education Program, houses our First-Year
Initiatives. It is supervised by a dean (a member of the teaching faculty who
serves a half-time, two-year term), a full-time associate dean, a coordinator
of advising, a director of service learning and a secretary. All of these
positions were new with the redesign of our general education program in 1994.
The full-time coordinator of advising position was created expressly to serve
first-year students.
26.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT:
1. New
and renovated buildings (Mesa CC) are designed with the explicit purpose of
providing the types of learning space conducive to these activities. For
example, “soft spaces” are provided for students and faculty to meet,
talk, and study together, providing a natural environment for
collaboration.
LEARNING COLLEGE:
1.
Student Outcomes
Assessment: General education forms the learning core for the vast majority of
students, particularly during their first year, and thus is the basis for one
of the cornerstones of the first year experience – student outcomes
assessment. The Mesa CC community believes that a coherent general
education program is more than a collection of required courses; it develops an
educated and responsible citizenry.
2.
Learning Communities—a
First Year Seminar linked to a discipline-based course, with all sections
framed by a common template of learning outcomes and pedagogical strategies and
taught by an instructional team that is composed of a faculty member, an
advisor, a student mentor, and a librarian—and often using Service Learning and
other engaging pedagogies (Univ of Indiana – Purdue)
SECONDARY
TRANSITION:
1. The Rising Star (RS) program (Richland Community College) is designed
specifically to assist high school seniors whose family income falls into a
"gap" where they are not readily eligible for federal aid and yet are
unable to afford expenses beyond the basic living essentials. The program
provides eligible students a full two-year college education worth $2,200 which
includes tuition and books. In addition to the financial need, the
program targets students who graduate from high school in the top 40% of the
class (approximately a "B" average or better).
STUDENT/FACULTY CONTACT:
ORGANIZATION:
SOME FOUNDATIONAL IDEAS:
1.
Key components include:
clearly defined learning outcomes; clearly defined assessment procedures; a
unifying theme with linked courses, clustered courses, and/or an integrative
seminar; creation of an intellectually stimulating environment; collaboration
and interactive learning strategies; integration of curriculum, academic
services, and student support services; extension of learning beyond the
classroom; links to academic programs; and peer mentors. (Iowa State
University)
2.
An exceptional strength
of the learning communities program has been the continual dedication to
development of intentional partnerships between Academic and Student Affairs to
holistically improve student learning. The design of learning communities
draws strongly from student affairs research and literature and combines this
knowledge with disciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and learning
strategies. (Iowa State Univ)
3.
Assessment of individual
learning communities and of the overall initiative has been a priority and
major factor in the institutionalization of learning communities from a
three-year pilot program to a permanent base budget item of the
University. A team of assessment experts on campus have led the efforts
in two major ways: 1) by and administering a survey to first-year students, and
2) by conducting retention studies. In both cases, learning community
participants have been compared to non-learning community participants. (Iowa
State Univ.)