UCA’s Residential Colleges have been waging a blitzkrieg—a lightening war—against academic mediocrity. According to Dr. Jayme Millsap Stone, director of learning communities, the coordinated effort between UCA’s Residential Colleges, the Academic Advising Center, the Academic Success Center and Housing & Residence Life involved faculty, staff and student leaders from all these areas.
Planning for this academic success campaign actually began with a survey of student needs last fall, most of whom indicated the desire for more highly-targeted, student-centered interventions. Residential College students said they wanted relevant and concrete strategies for success in their specific classes rather than general “how to” workshops. In other words, Generation Me students want assistance from their own instructors on how to meet (and exceed) professors’ high standards.
A summer 2011 survey of Residential College alumni indicated just how important the faculty associates are to our living/learning community students. Indeed, 80% said having faculty teach in their living environment had been “very” or “extremely” important to a positive and successful first-year experience. To be sure, the Residential College faculty associates have a powerful impact on student persistence to graduation.
Consequently, the first blitz was led by the faculty associates. The first full week of fall classes was declared “Academic Blitzkrieg Week” and 44 faculty associates from CLA, CNSM, CHBS, and CFAC participated by each conducting an intensive, class/discipline-specific workshop on how to succeed in her/his specific course. These evening sessions were not extra time to go over syllabi, but a time to discuss and model strategies the instructor believed important to student success. Professional support of the Learning Communities faculty associates was offered in the form of a workshop on “Reading In The Content Area” developed and delivered by Minton Commuter Master Dr. Catherine Swift and Dr. Robert Reising of the Academic Success Center. This workshop was conducted prior to the start of the fall term with the goal of providing the faculty with various strategies to increase student comprehension in specific disciplines.
Participating faculty associates included: Dr. Azida Walker (Physics), Dr. Story Matkin Rawn (History), Paulette Bane (English), Dr. Paul Krause (Chemistry), Phillip Melton (FYFS), Dr. Krista Peppers (Biology), Dr. Taine Duncan (Philosophy & Religion), Shelle Stormoe (Writing), Dr. Julia Winden Fey (Philosophy & Religion), Casey Griffith (Speech), Dr. Kondwani Phwandaphwanda (Music), Dr. Dwayne Coleman (English),
Phillip Spivey (Philosophy & Religion), Dr. Jeffrey Padberg (Biology), Dr. Kathy French (Health Education), Jason Martin (Mathematics), Dr. Mike Schaefer (English), Dr. Faith Yarberry (Chemistry), Leah Horton (Biology), Dr. Bill Lammers (Psychology), Dr. Jayme Millsap Stone (History), Dr. Jim Deitrick (Philosophy & Religion), Katherine Bray (Speech), Kevin Baer (Speech), Adriian Gardner (Speech), Dr. Phillip Bailey (World Languages & Cultures), Dr. Charles Bane (English), Dr. Chris Craun (History),
Dr. Peter Mehl (Philosophy & Religion), Dr. Jerry Reynolds (Geography), Dr. John Toth (Sociology), Tanya Jeffcoat (Philosophy & Religion), Ruthann Curry Brown (Theatre), Dr. Kevin Browne (Theatre), Dr. Ben Rider (Philosophy & Religion), Dr. Price Dooley (Political Science), Dr. Larry Dilday (Speech), Dr. Rusty Rogers (English), Dr. David Neilson (History), Dr. Lorraine Duso (Music), Dr. Stephen Feldman (Music), Dr. Greg Blakey (Theatre), and Dr. Don Jones (History).
The second blitz was led by the Academic Advising Center. After mid-term grades were reported in mid-October, Jenny Ruud (academic advisor for the Residential Colleges) coordinated a “Midterm Blitz” to first identify students “at risk” and then organized a series of required academic workshops for any student failing a class (F) or showing academic distress (D) in two classes.
Residential College Resident Masters Dr. Kondwani Phwandaphwanda, Leah Horton, Tanya Jeffcoat, and Dr. Faith Yarberry reinforced the need for “at risk” students to attend the sessions conducted by academic advisors Paulette Bane, Colin Stanton, Jeanette Solomon, Anne Sweet, and Tanya Buchanan. The evening workshops included: how to drop a course, the importance of meeting with an advisor, how to register for classes and where to go for academic help and support. Additionally, tutors from the Academic Success Center also spoke during each session and encouraged students to take advantage of the ASC’s free tutoring services.
This second blitz was highly successful and 120 first-year Residential College students needing assistance with their college transition attended. Thomas Bruick, Area Coordinator for Housing & Residence Life, is currently working with the Residence Coordinators and Residence Assistants in each Residential College to coordinate one-on-one interventions for those not captured in this second blitzkrieg.
Through coordination of effort and speed of intervention, these Residential College Academic Success Blitz initiatives will help first-year students focus on academic achievement and success in the classroom.