Academics Share | First Year Success formally established under co-directors Crownhart and Diaz Bonacquisti Sep 26, 2007 (l to r) Judi Diaz Bonacquisti, associate vice president for Enrollment Services, and Skip Crownhart, director of the Advising Center, will co-direct the First Year Success program. While more students transfer into Metro State than any other college in the state, more students leave the college each year as well. In his address at the Welcome Back Ceremony earlier this month, President Jordan addressed the retention problem, citing the freshmen dropout rate as 42 percent and challenging faculty and staff to reduce that number by 10 percent in the next five years. Coincident with this challenge, Metro State is this semester implementing the First Year Success program, designed to give students the resources they need to remain in school and be successful. Started last fall as the Transition Services pilot program, First Year Success is newly designed this year as a joint effort of Student Services and Academic Affairs. Vice President for Student Services Kathy MacKay said: "A smooth transition into the Metro State college community is essential for success, but the entire first year is especially critical." Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Linda Curran added, "In our discussions, we (Academic Affairs and Student Services) agreed that we should re-focus our efforts and resources on the First Year experience. Our next goal is to redesign our sophomore year follow-up program and our programs for transfer students.” President Jordan has named Skip Crownhart, director of the Advising Center, and Judi Diaz Bonacquisti, associate vice president for Enrollment Services, as co-directors of the program. “While this initiative is being implemented under Student Services and Academic Affairs—and it is an important pairing—improving retention really has to become a whole-college approach,” said Crownhart. Diaz Bonacquisti agreed, adding: “We all—faculty and staff—need to realize the impact that our relationships with students has on them and on their decision to remain here.” The importance of relationships Building student relationships—with faculty, staff and other students—is at the heart of the plan for First Year Success, which is focusing this semester on a group of 260 provisionally admitted freshmen, grouped together in the Reece Learning Community. The learning community is named in honor of former Metro State Associate Dean of Student Life Pauline Reece who passed away in 2001. The group is divided into 11 cohorts, each of which will take linked courses that provide additional academic and social support. Cohorts of students take three classes together, giving them a community of friends and study partners. “If these students are together, they’ll form relationships; they’ll care about their friends’ success,” said Crownhart. “This is especially important at a commuter college like ours,” added Diaz Bonacquisti. “Our traditional-age students aren’t forming relationships in dorms or through other activities that come from living on campus. Their relationships come from their class time together. So, if they see each other more frequently in the same classes, they are more likely to take more of an interest in each other and in each other’s success.” While noting that they are still in process of assessing and determining the best model for Metro State, Diaz Bonacquisti, who also co-chairs the Hispanic Serving Institution Task Force Committee, said, “The HSI Task Force is looking at other institutions, particularly those with learning communities; we’re very interested in seeing how learning communities work and how we might apply some of the lessons from the successful ones here, given the unique attributes of our student body.” Crownhart said First Year Success is working toward integrating the curriculum in these linked classes, and providing training for faculty members who are teaching these classes to integrate their curricula. “For example,” Crownhart said, “a cohort taking an English composition class can apply their writing skills to an essay for a linked history class.” In addition to their linked cohort classes, the students in the Reece Learning Community are also taking a first-year seminar titled “Freshman Success.” The seminar provides information on how to navigate the College, where to get help, how to develop critical thinking and writing skills, and other support services. First Year Success is also planning to conduct focus groups and surveys to get student feedback throughout the year on the usefulness of the cohorts, the freshman seminar and other support services. Nationally, the college dropout rate is highest among freshmen, then sophomores. The same is true at Metro State, which is why Crownhart and Diaz Bonacquisti are focusing their initial efforts on incoming freshmen. The long-term plan is to offer the learning community concept as an option to all incoming freshmen at Metro State, and to further expand learning communities to students from the freshmen through the senior levels. Top of Page

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