First-Year Experience

Faculty Task Force Background

As part of the University's reaffirmation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in 2005, Georgia Southern University submitted a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).  Three of the five objectives of the QEP focus on the first year:

  1. Freshmen will apply behaviors that demonstrate their responsibilities as engaged learners.
  2. Freshmen will practice behaviors that lead to lifelong learning.
  3. Freshmen will evaluate their responsibilities as engaged members in diverse communities.

In order to better position the University to achieve these objectives, Georgia Southern participated in the Foundations of Excellence® project in 2005-2006 to assess strengths and weaknesses of the first year as experienced by students and to make recommendations for improvement.  Nearly 60 faculty, staff and students participated, as members of one of nine Dimension Review Teams that examined a specific aspect of the first year.  In addition, the University participated in a first-year student survey and a faculty/staff survey; nearly eighty percent of each sample completed the survey.  This process yielded many significant findings, three of which significantly shaped the work of the Faculty Task Force:

  1. Compared with other institutions who participated in the Foundations of Excellence project, Georgia Southern scored fairly well when it came to affective measures of student engagement, but underperformed in areas of academic engagement. 
  2. On the whole, faculty envisioned the First-Year Experience as a Student Affairs unit rather than an Academic Affairs one.  Because of this, efforts to improve FYE were not seen as an Academic Affairs responsibility.
  3. Students did not, in large numbers, report that Georgia Southern accurately communicated academic expectations prior to enrollment.  Only 49 percent indicated that the University did so to a "very high" or "high" degree.

Because of these findings, Provost Linda Bleicken formed the Faculty Task Force and charged the group with developing challenge/support initiatives, particularly academic in nature, to strengthen the First-Year Experience on campus.  She charged the group with examining students' experiences before enrollment, during the GSU 1210 course administered during the first semester, and beyond the first semester.

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