In October 2000, the Task Force on the First-Year Student Experience was charged by David Hodge, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, to suggest institutional mechanisms, social/cultural programs, and curricular innovations that would allow our incoming students to take more immediate advantage of the tremendous range of learning and social opportunities available at the University of Washington.

The move from high school to college brings with it a whole host of challenges and concerns. We believe that by providing for our students a smooth and sustained transition to the University of Washington we can advance student success and fulfillment both inside and outside of the college classroom.

Summarized herein are a proposed series of policies and programs designed to encourage and support our first-year students in becoming active participants in the learning process and integral members of larger UW culture and social community. Further recommendations are contained in the main text of the report and in the detailed subcommittee reports included in the appendix.

General Recommendation

We recommend that the College of Arts & Sciences together with the various stakeholders involved in undergraduate education at the UW develop a Council on the First-Year Student Experience. This permanent standing committee would be comprised of faculty, staff, administrators, and student representatives and would serve as an advisory board to the Dean of Undergraduate Education.

The Council's role would be to coordinate the activities of the various departments and programs involved in undergraduate education, communicate these programs to current and prospective students, and provide a mechanism by which faculty perspectives might be more effectively brought to bear on issues central to the first-year experience.

In addition to this general recommendation, our committee identified a series of specific recommendations categorized in three areas we believe are particularly relevant to incoming students.

The Three Faces of the First Year Experience

Academics - The Intellectual Side of College Life

• Expand the number of freshmen seminars available to incoming students - faculty-led courses, substantive in academic scope, small in size, and based on self-reflective learning principles.
• Develop a University-wide "common course" experience centered on inquiry and discovery.
• Create division-wide gateway courses that thematically address topics of common interest - cross-disciplinary courses that highlight the unique methodological/theoretical natures of departments and programs.
• Support and encourage departments/divisions to articulate learning outcomes at each level of their majors with specific attention to the learning objectives and skill outcomes associated with 100-level course offerings.
• Provide opportunities for faculty (as an extension of the Faculty Fellows Program) and graduate student instructors to discuss/share techniques and strategies aimed at bringing metacognition (self-reflection) into their courses and classrooms.
• Broaden the available opportunities for sustained writing across the curricular - particularly within courses taken by incoming students.
  

Institutional Awareness - Navigating the Bureaucracy and Still Having a Good Time

• Provide early communication with students (prior to coming to campus) explaining the range of academic, social, and cultural programs offered at UW.
• Develop a "Bridge Program" for all incoming first-year students (modeled after current programs administered by the Office of Minority Affairs and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics) that helps transition students to the intellectual and social life of the university.
• Create a quarter-long general studies course (UW 101) that would assist students in understanding the culture of a research university, the unique opportunities available at the University of Washington, and the accessibility of these programs to students.
• Enhance advising outreach to provide mechanisms for bringing advising services to students on a more regular and consistent basis (for example, through informal meetings at the HUB, in student dormitories, community centers, sororities/fraternities, etc.).

Connection - Bringing First-Year Students, Faculty, and Staff Together

• Increase the amount of one-on-one contact between faculty and students through early correspondence (mail/email contact) between newly accepted students and faculty.
• Enhance faculty involvement in orientation and programs such as the FIG Program.

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