Fredonia has been selected to participate in Re-Imagining the First Year of College (RFY), a sweeping, national, three-year initiative to remake the first year of college to increase student success rates.
Only 44 public colleges and universities across the nation were accepted into the coalition assembled by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, a Washington, D.C.-based higher education association comprised of nearly 420 institutions. Fredonia is also the lone participant in New York State.
“We are honored to represent the SUNY system as well as New York State,” said Associate Provost Lisa Hunter. “Most importantly, we are thrilled to be part of this learning community whose goal is to provide a transformational learning experience for every student, and that begins in the first year.”
The project seeks to help each participating college — and by extension, all AASCU members — to implement changes that enhance the first-year student experience, resulting in higher retention and graduation rates, particularly among historically underserved populations.
According to the AASCU, the first year of college is the most critical threshold for determining college success. It is when the highest dropout rates occur, yet it’s also recognized as the most conducive year for reform due to its traditional concentration on general education courses.
Fredonia’s RFY team (comprised of Erin Mroczka, director of First Year and Transition Programs; Mary Beth Sievens, chair, Department of History; Nancy Boynton, Mathematical Sciences professor; and Dr. Hunter) attended the project’s launch at the AASCU’s annual meeting in early February. They also serve on the campus Retention Council that will work on the RFY campus plan through the existing Strategic Enrollment Management structure.
Feedback from the entire campus will be accepted throughout the process.
AASCU has identified what it calls “the most promising practices” from a review of strategies tested across the country. Each participating campus will commit to at least one strategy at four levels: institutional, curriculum, faculty/staff and students.
As a participant, Fredonia will receive direct support from AASCU, which will connect campuses tackling similar issues and also send educational and technical consultants to campuses. RFY members will attend conferences and educational webinars and have access to online tools and resources. AASCU will collect metrics on progress and share results with all 44 campuses.
At the end of the three years, each campus is to have a more comprehensive strategy for student success with measurable results based on retention and credits earned, among other factors, and a broader support network. AASCU will have a fine-tuned repository of best practices with qualitative and quantitative metrics to share within its network as well as the broader higher education community.
“We will focus on implementing the right strategies at the right time,” explained Dr. Hunter, who specializes in curriculum, assessment and academic support. “We are excited to help students adopt a growth mindset toward their personal and intellectual development. We know that a sense of belonging is integral to a successful transition to college for first-year students.”
Citing a Brookings Institution demographer’s prediction that the percentage of young Americans with college degrees will begin to decline in 2020, AASCU advocates for a broad-scale transformation of higher education that reacts to changing demographic and sociological trends.
The RFY initiative is funded by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USA Funds.
