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The University of Akron has been selected as a semifinalist in the “Institutions of Excellence in the First College Year” project sponsored by the Policy Center on the First Year of College at Brevard College in Brevard, N.C. The center is supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Pew Charitable Trust.
The purpose of the center’s project is to see how much focus is placed on undergraduate students and their success within the research university sector.
More than 130 nomination narratives were received from colleges and universities around the country detailing the programs they have in place for new students. Fifty-four schools, from community colleges to four-year institutions of varying sizes, have progressed to the semifinal category. The narratives from all the semifinalist schools will be placed on the center’s Web site this summer as “models of best first-year practice in American higher education.”
Among the other schools with more than 20,000 students competing alongside UA are Georgia State University, Iowa State University, Purdue University and the University of Oklahoma.
Only 12 institutions will be selected as finalists, says Karla Mugler, dean of University College, who directs UA’s efforts on behalf of first-year students, both traditional-age and adults.
One of the most successful efforts to date has been UA’s learning communities, established in 1995. Groups of 20-25 students form a cohort, enabling them to become more engaged in their learning, develop appropriate study strategies, establish peer networks and form study groups, thereby promoting student success. By participating in learning communities, students get to know their classmates more quickly and feel at ease faster than if they were facing a new group of people in each classroom. Students in learning communities say they feel more comfortable speaking up in class because they know their classmates.
Another effort for first-year students is the Summer Reading Program. All incoming freshmen are asked to read an assigned book over the summer. The book’s author is then the guest speaker at Akron Traditions, a convocation for new students held at the beginning of each fall semester. The book also is incorporated into their classes over the year.
New Student Orientation sessions designed for specific student populations, and Majors Mosaic, a majors fair, are among first-year programs as well.
In the coming weeks, Mugler and her team will be providing more documentation to the center on each component of UA’s first-year initiatives. The schools chosen as finalists will be notified around Aug. 1.
“There’s a lot of competition, certainly, but we’re very excited all the same,” says Mugler. “We think we’ve developed some fine programs, although we’re not ready to rest on our laurels. There’s certainly much more to do.”
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