Several University College faculty members presented at the 36th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience which was held on Feb. 11-14 in Atlanta.

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Natasha Habers, interim chair of First-Year and Transition Studies and associate professor of art,  Deborah Mixson-Brookshire, assistant dean of University College and associate professor of management, Ruth Goldfine, interim associate dean of University College and professor of English, and Nirmal Trivedi, director of First-Year Seminars and assistant professor of English, presented the findings of their research on KSU's Bridge to Success (B2S) program.

 

The presentation, titled "Summer Bridge:  Providing Pathways for Success with Targeted First-year Students," included a description of the program, data regarding the impact of the program on student success, and recommendations for the future of the program. 

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Jen Wells, director of Assessment in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and assistant professor of Higher Education, along with co-presenters, Jennifer Keup, director of the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and Dallin George Young, assistant director of Research for the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, introduced a new framework for creating, refining, and assessing a first-year experience in their presentation, “Using CAS Cross-Functional Frameworks to Facilitate a Collaborative FYE Approach.”  

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Responding to demands in higher education, the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) is piloting new frameworks for assessing issues that transcend one functional area.  Given that collaboration and inclusion are foundational to first-year experience (FYE) history, philosophy, and practice, it was selected as one of the first areas of development for these new standards.  The framework offers direction for creating, refining, and assessing a FYE that engages multiple functional areas (e.g., student affairs, academic services and department, and enrollment management). The session introduced the new framework and discussed its application and implications in a campus setting.