Contents
• Greetings from the Honors Program
• PEARL Presents at Higher Learning Commission Meeting with CSU
• PEARL Retreat
• Living and Learning Together: Communities a Recipe for Success
• Transfer Tag Team
Special Announcement
Greetings from the Honors Program
The Honors Program is celebrating! Our current theme is "20 Years of Academic Excellence". On April 20 and 21, our first alumni reunion will take place. Over 1000 students have graduated from the Honors Program, and we hope to have a number of them here to join us. At that time, we will also be forming an Honors Alumni group, in hopes that we will have various kinds of support for our current students. In the plans are assistance for study abroad, the possibility of establishing a lectures series and/or a scholar in residence, and expanding current Honors offerings as well as increasing the thesis completion rate.
From a small office in the student union with one support staff person and 100 incoming students, Patrice Berger has brought the program to one of national recognition. Neihardt housing and the textbook scholarship gave the program an immense boost in the 1990's. The 2006 entering class numbered over 500, with an average ACT score of 30.6. In 2006, over 150 people graduated from the Program, many with levels of distinction from their colleges. Our students are active across campus in a wide variety of areas, from ASUN and the marching band to the ballroom dance club and intramurals. Their presence is changing the campus, and will continue to do so, as approximately 1200 students have applied for membership in the program for the fall of 2007, and we expect to have a full class.
Plan to celebrate with us!
Announcements & Events
PEARL Presents at Higher Learning Commission Meeting with CSU
Jessica Jonson (University-wide Assessment Director, Office of Undergraduate Studies) and Jim Walter (Associate Dean, CEHS), both members of the PEARL steering committee, will present with representatives from Colorado State University at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Higher Learning Commission in Chicago. The presentation, Use and Impact of a Quality Enhancement System: A Tale of Two Universities, will explore similarities and differences in the approach to outcomes assessment at the two institutions. Both institutions use the same software system (which was developed at Colorado State University) but have taken different paths in implementation.
PEARL Retreat
The PEARL steering committee is pleased to announce that the PEARL retreat will be held on May 7, 2007. The retreat will be held at an off-campus location in Lincoln. The retreat will bring together PEARL program leaders, PEARL peer reviewers and administrators for collaboration, sharing, celebration and learning.
Living and Learning Together: Communities a Recipe for Success
By Alex Haueter, Journalism undergraduate student and student worker in Office of Undergraduate Studies
Learning communities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln have a new face in charge, but the administrative change doesn't come with any mission change to the program's goals.
Ann Marie Williams took over as academic learning communities coordinator this school year after five years with the learning communities program. Before assuming her new role, Williams had been both an assistant coordinator to the learning communities as well as a hall director. Williams said she is excited about her new position, but she doesn't think major changes are necessary for the program. "The learning communities and scholar programs are known on campus, they're working well, and we're excited to grow them," she said of the communities.
UNL has had organized learning communities -- a cooperative effort between the Housing Department and the Office of Undergraduate Studies -- since 1999 and now has 15 communities for freshmen. Ten are "traditional" communities around a specific major, in which students live on the same dorm floor and take several classes together. These communities are mostly housed in Abel Hall, but there are learning communities in Burr and Selleck halls as well.
In addition, UNL has five "scholar programs" such as the E.N. Thompson International Scholars community, that cater to students who share an interest rather than a major. The scholar programs are a fairly new addition; none are more than three years old.
One of Williams's goals as coordinator is to increase the learning communities' presence on campus by raising communication between the learning communities and the campus at large. "We are trying to develop more visibility amongst these programs on campus and acknowledgement of them as unique individual programs as well as being part of a campus-wide initiative." she said.
Aside from continuing to build that image, Williams said UNL continues to lead the way in the development of community learning programs. "One thing that makes ours unique to other campuses is that our students live together on the same dorm floor, they're taking classes together, and they're doing outside activities with faculty," she said. "Ours is a good blend between academic engagement for first year students as well as supporting their transition to the university."
The combination of learning and living together provides students with a strong background as they advance through their careers at UNL, Williams said. Many students say they meet their best friends by participating in a learning community. Others say they study with fellow members of their learning communities as they continue beyond their first year. That continuation is the main strength of the learning communities. Williams said a number of the communities boast a higher retention rate than the university's overall population.
Williams said she thinks the success of the learning communities and scholars program will continue and hopes enrollment in these programs continues to rise. Currently these programs are marketed to incoming students at Red Letter Days, mailings to parents of incoming students from the Office of Undergraduate Studies, as well as the Division of Housing.
In addition, the learning communities benefit from word of mouth. Williams said she was pleased to talk to a mother recently whose son, a prospective student, was considering a learning community on his older brother's recommendation. "I work with these programs everyday and see first hand how effective they are for many of our students, but it is really rewarding to hear parents and past participants repeat that message back to us," Williams said.
Transfer Tag Team
by Alex Haueter, Journalism undergraduate student and student worker in Office of Undergraduate Studies
After years flying under the radar of major universities, transfer students are starting to get a lot of attention, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Transfer Tag Team is getting national attention for its efforts to ease the transition from one school to another. "Transfer students are kind of a hot topic at the moment," said JoAnn Moseman, who has worked in the Office of Undergraduate Studies as UNL's academic transfer coordinator for about five years.
UNL's Transfer Tag Team - a multi-department cooperative effort consisting of Moseman in OUS and Patrick McBride and Cindy Cammack in the Office of Admissions - is responsible for attracting and recruiting transfer students and making their transition to the university as smooth as possible. "You lose students when people don't communicate," Moseman said. "I think we're having fewer students falling through the gaps."
Cammack recruits potential transfer students. Once students decide to enroll, McBride sees them through orientation and registration. Moseman takes over once students are enrolled, offering support as they begin classes at UNL. Moseman said the Transfer Tag Team has been successful because it requires communication between two offices with different goals. "They're in Admissions, which is on the student affairs side, and I'm in the academic affairs side," Moseman said.
The team's method gained a lot of exposure this January when Cammack, McBride and Moseman traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, to give a presentation at the annual conference of the Institute for the Study of Transfer Students, a partnership of the University of North Texas and the National Orientation Directors Association.
"The basic idea was to show that the three of us collaborating and working together could lead to a seamless transition," Moseman said. "There are not a lot of universities that have someone dedicated to working with transfer students once they get here."
The team's presentation focused on their methods of building and maintaining relationships with transfer students at UNL. The Tag Team begins its recruitment by sending potential transfers newsletters and admissions information as much as two years before a student actually transfers, said Cammack, the associate director for transfer programs. "We work to keep in touch with them," Cammack said. Admissions sends a "How to Transfer Guide" upon inquiry and e-mails a newsletter for potential transfers eight times during the school year. "Most universities respond (to a student) when they receive an application," Cammack said, "not up front."
According to Moseman, UNL attracts more than half of its transfer students from in state community colleges. Communicating with these students is made easier by the community college's willingness to open their doors to recruiters. "We can recruit from community colleges because they expect their students to move on," Moseman said.
But the Tag Team emphasized at the conference that it's important to continue to communicate after a student enrolls at a new school. UNL offers a special portal on Blackboard for transfer students. This portal is made up of information pulled from all over UNL's Web site and offers students a one-stop resource about the university, Lincoln and student life. "Transfer students come in and they need to get a lot of information in a short amount of time," Moseman said of the Blackboard page. "There's a wide variety of information available that students can access 24/7."
The presentation also emphasized the importance of involving enrolled transfer students in the recruitment of other transfers. McBride has adapted the New Student Enrollment program to different needs of transfer students, hiring current transfer students as part of the NSE Team, and developing their expertise in the area. "Transfer students can take advantage of NSE dates specific to transfer students," said McBride. Those who are admitted early are even offered enrollment one day before priority registration.
Cammack said she thought the presentation was successful in making other schools aware of UNL's technique. "We got very nice reviews," Cammack said. "I think we were one of the few presentations that looked at the recruitment, admissions, registration and articulation aspects."
Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
201 Seaton Hall
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0683
(402) 472-1185
unlous@unlnotes.unl.edu
Dr. Rita Kean, Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Textiles, Clothing and Design
Jamar Banks, Director of OASIS
Dr. Patrice Berger, Director of NU Honors Program and Professor of History
Dr. Laura Damuth, Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Advisor
Dr. Donald Gregory, Director of General Studies and Associate Professor of English
Gail Hackwith, Administrative Assistant
Dr. Jessica Jonson, University-wide Assessment Coordinator
Jennifer Lantz, Administrative Technician I
JoAnn Moseman, Academic Transfer Coordinator
Jeremy Penn, Assessment Associate for PEARL
Marcia White, E.N. Thompson Coordinator and Political Science Advisor
AnnMarie Williams, Academic Learning Communities Coordinator
