Colleges and
Universities Freshman orientation
By PAMELA SCHAEFFER
NCR Staff
Their parents never had it so good.
In recent years colleges and universities across the United
States, concerned about student attrition and about students who see the
university less as a place to learn than as a place to stay out late and drink,
have been on a quest for ways to connect freshmen to their institutions.
Freshmen often report feeling isolated and lonely after the
initial excitement of leaving home wears off. Some arent ready for the
personal freedom or prepared for the rigor of college work.
For public universities especially, attrition among freshmen is
high. Nationally, the rate averages 25 percent; at some schools it is much
higher. For the institutions, more is at stake than human misery. Declining
enrollments contribute to loss not only of public funds but also of prestige.
In those ubiquitous college rankings that administrators hate but parents love,
one measure of a schools quality is how many entering freshmen return for
the sophomore year.
Programs around the country to boost first-year success range from
seminars and small classes that aim to strengthen study skills and connect
students to the institutions resources (sometimes called University 101)
to social events, mentoring arrangements, and even outward-bound-type programs
to promote student-faculty bonding.
Increasingly, schools have an administrator and staff devoted to
freshmen. At the University of Notre Dame, for example, theres a dean of
first-year students. Theres even a national resource center for the
Freshman Year Experience at the University of South Carolina, and a journal
devoted exclusively to the cause.
Although attrition is usually less of a problem at Catholic
colleges and universities, as at most private schools, they, too, are working
hard to make the first year better. For one thing, many administrators would
like to reduce attrition even more. For another, freshmen programs are a chance
to highlight Catholic identity. That helps schools build their image on two
fronts: with the Vatican, which is pushing schools to return to their religious
roots, and with parents and students weighing the pros and cons of various
academic options.
As Phil Lyons, director of student life at St. Louis University,
put it, We have excellent academics, a fine faculty, but its our
Catholic identity that makes us different. Thats our niche.
Boston College is among Catholic schools that put enormous energy
into an orientation program aimed at instilling values. Attrition is not
our problem, said Fr. Joseph Marchese, director of the first-year
experience. Despite a large freshman class, 2,200 this year, the schools
average freshman-to-sophomore-year dropout rate is only 6 percent.
We were more interested in affecting the student
culture, Marchese said. Administrators were concerned about
drinking and student behavior; the faculty were concerned about their
intellectual precociousness. They wanted students who were alive in terms of
their curiosity about the world of ideas.
Inability to balance
Marchese said he had been struck in conversations and counseling
with upperclassmen over the years by the realization that the freshman year had
often been marked by an inability to balance, to make the right choices,
to connect to the resources of the university. Often, he said, students
said they did not really understand what was expected of them and had a hard
time finding advisors or mentors.
Marchese developed a program based partly on his own study of
human cultures at Harvard, particularly the role of ritual process
in initiating new members into communities and into their shared sense of
values and expectations. A key component, he said, was to initiate
students to the idea that we are a Jesuit Catholic university, a place
where students can develop not only a good mind, but a generous
heart, can grow into leaders with a sense of compassion, justice
and faith. He described the result, which has become a model for other
schools, as a real collaborative effort of a lot of departments across
the university.
The three-day orientation weekend, offered seven times a summer,
relies heavily on 40 paid student leaders, selected from some 300 applicants.
Marcheses first job is to build a sense of community and mission among
the student leaders through an intensive training effort that begins with a
three-day outward-bound experience.
That peer voice is very important, Marchese said.
I didnt want the leaders to be telling students where to get false
IDs or advising them on the easy way to get through our core curriculum.
Its very important that they understand the focus I have in
mind.
The program begins with liturgy a staple of orientation
programs at virtually all Catholic schools. After dinner, parents and incoming
freshmen learn the schools fight song, and then hear selected faculty
members talk about the people and ideas that make Boston College
special. Over the course of the three days, parents and students, usually
meeting separately, discuss the transition to college life, hear Boston law
enforcement officials talk about community standards, view skits on a variety
of common student problems, tour the campus and library, dance, collect
materials at an information fair and gather for a final rally where
they sing the fight song they learned the first night.
Parents and students arrive on campus filled with anxiety,
wondering if they have made the right decision, he said, so we
spend a good amount of time explaining ourselves, he said.
The effort doesnt end when the weekend is over.
Its important that we keep students as close as possible the first
year, Marchese said. Last year he designed a pilot course called The
Courage to Know: Exploring the Intellectual, Social and Spiritual Landscape of
the College Years.
St. Louis University has a program similar to the one at Boston
College but adds to the mix a video presentation for parents on the life of St.
Ignatius of Loyola and a classroom experience for students.
Reading together
Students and faculty members are asked to read during the summer
Tuesdays With Morrie, the bestseller by Mitch Albom that recounts the
weekly exchanges between a professor who is dying of Lou Gehrigs disease
and a former student. Faculty and small groups of students then meet in
classrooms to discuss the book and, ideally, to begin forming faculty-student
mentoring relationships. The culminating event for the past two years was a
talk and book signing by Albom, the books author.
Lyons, the first-year director, said students find Albom extremely
engaging even though he tells them what theyve probably heard before:
that the real value of the college years is learning, becoming part of a
community, and not, as many might think, the chance to improve their financial
standing in life.
Lyons admits that close student-faculty relationships dont
develop through the program as often as hed like. But at least the
students find out that our faculty members are good people who are interested
in them, he said. Recently the university hired 25 new faculty members so
that the small-class experience can continue through the freshman year.
Both Boston College and St. Louis University include presentations
that help parents understand the transition students will be going through as
their excitement about going away to college turns to anxiety. Weve
learned that more introverted students will often act out against their parents
and more extroverted students will withdraw, Lyons said. The
presentations give parents a wide understanding of the emotional
ups and downs of the first year, he said.
Like St. Louis University, Franciscan University of Steubenville
asks its students to do some summer reading. But the readings, and on-campus
discussions, have a more theological focus: a selection from Cardinal John
Henry Newmans Idea of a University and an essay titled
Franciscan Values in Higher Education.
Peer-to-peer programs
Most of the students struggle with Newman, said Mary
Kay Lacke, dean of evangelization. Generally, though, she said, our
orientation is just a lot of fun.
Ive been here 21 years, and Ive seen our
orientation grow a lot, Lacke said. Some recent additions include
peer-to-peer programs, where older students talk about such issues
as date rape, alcohol use and eating disorders. Those issues, troubling for
many students today, are part of orientation discussions on many Catholic
campuses.
John Carroll University in suburban Cleveland presents
psychosocial skits based on common social and emotional problems.
By an informal measure of success, Lisa Heckman, director of student
leadership, said it works. Every year, at least once during an
orientation, students stand up and talk in front of their peers about problems
theyve had, she said. To me, thats validation in and of
itself.
John Carroll, where nearly 90 percent of the students are
Caucasian, also wraps some diversity training into orientation.
One of our goals is to orient students to the university; another is to
sensitize them, to make them aware of issues they may be encountering,
she said.
At Xavier University in Cincinnati, efforts to welcome new
students begin with move-in, when upperclassmen greet arriving
freshmen to move their belongings into dorms. Parents dont have to
lift a thing, said Kimberlie Goldsberry, director for leadership and
orientation. That evening, students gather in an open field for a large,
interactive group bonding activity called Playfair. A group
comes in and facilitates it for us, Goldsberry said, conducting directed
activities that give students a chance to meet countless numbers of
people.
On Sunday, day three of a four-day program, students are invited
to a retreat at an off-campus center, followed by a dance that evening. On
Monday, the office of academic affairs hosts a convocation.
As at many Catholic schools, one of the biggest struggles at
Xavier is talking to students about the schools spiritual heritage
without setting their minds adrift. How to articulate that in an
engaging way what comprises the Jesuit tradition has been a
struggle for many years, Goldsberry said.
This year the staff developed a video presentation of students
talking about what the tradition means to them: caring for persons, service,
becoming men and women for others, she said. The entire orientation program is
called Manresa, after the town in Spain where Ignatius of Loyola had the
spiritual experience that changed his life and led him to form the Society of
Jesus.
Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and Rockhurst University in
Kansas City, Mo., have built volunteer service programs into orientation.
Our mission statement, our Catholic heritage and tradition really
permeate our whole orientation program, said Frederick Lorensen, director
of freshman development and student services. This year, as part of
orientation, some 200 students helped out in four to five projects around the
city. At Rockhurst, nearly 300 students, virtually the entire freshman class,
along with upperclassmen, faculty, staff and alumni, do cleanup projects in the
urban area surrounding the school.
Using the city
Other schools using small classes as a way to help freshmen
succeed include the University of Notre Dame and the University of San
Francisco, which models its program partly on DePauls. At San Francisco,
Sacred Heart Sr. Theresa Moser, assistant dean for academic services, said the
faculty members are encouraged to develop courses that attract students with
catchy titles and use the city as a learning resource. For example, one course
in the universitys Freshman Advantage program, When the Fat Lady Sings:
Opera in San Francisco, includes attending performances. Another, Poetry in San
Francisco, culminates in dinner with a local poet.
The University of Notre Dame has long had a program called First
Year of Students since 1962, according to Eileen Kolman, dean of first
year studies. It was prompted by alert administrators who noticed a problem of
freshman attrition at schools around the country. Freshmen choose from
writing-intensive seminar courses specifically geared to them. Topics range
widely, according to professors areas of interest and expertise, and
ideally help students become familiar with resources at Notre Dame.
The schools retention rate is one of the highest in the
country, with 97 percent of freshmen returning the second year. In part,
thats a product of selectivity. Statistically, at any school, the better
the student, the more likely he or she is to return in successive years. But
Kolman said Notre Dames success is higher than expected: a plus
13 factor in U.S. News and World Reports rankings. We
graduate 13 percent more students than statistics would indicate we should
given their incoming ability and class rank, she said.
This year Notre Dame, beset like other schools with keeping
entering students focused on nonsocial orientation events, shifted its
start-of-the-school-year liturgy to Tuesday, the programs fourth day and
the day classes begin. The Mass was followed by a picnic where three bands
played: A Latin band, a blues band and a rock band, culminating in a fireworks
display.
Expressing a sentiment that is shared by many Catholic
administrators, Kolman said, I think orientation is more about a spirit
than about giving out information (although Notre Dame also does a good
bit of that). We would like to leave parents and students with the
feeling that choosing Notre Dame was a good decision, that we know what
were doing here.
National Catholic Reporter, September 24,
1999
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