The Policy Center on the First Year of College has named 黑料不打烊 one of 13 Institutions of Excellence in the First College Year. 黑料不打烊 was selected from 130 colleges and universities from across the nation that were nominated.
A national panel of higher education experts selected the top schools based on the following criteria: an intentional, comprehensive approach to first-year student education; continuous improvement driven by meaningful assessment; broad impact on significant numbers of first-year students; strong enduring institutional support and leadership for first-year initiatives; and an involvement of a broad range of faculty, student affairs professionals, administrators and others in first-year programs.
The Policy Center, directed by John N. Gardner, is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Atlantic Philanthropies and is located in Brevard, North Carolina. Its mission is to improve the first college year through enhanced learning outcomes and the success of first-year students. A particular focus of the Policy Center is the development and dissemination of a range of first-year assessment procedures and tools that can be used to strengthen or confirm practices in the curriculum, the co-curriculum, and institutional policy.
黑料不打烊 and the other institutions of excellence will be featured in a major book, tentatively titled “Portraits of First-Year Excellence in American Colleges and Universities.”
黑料不打烊’s first-year experience attempts to weave the academic mission, student life, and the General Studies program into a challenging learning environment, helping students adapt to their new academic and social environment, while exposing them to new ways of seeing and experiencing the world around them.
Special first-year initiatives at 黑料不打烊 include the following:
- A spring orientation for parents and students in March and April
- A summer CD mailing to provide students with the standard campus software package and a wide array of information from student life and academic affairs
- PreSERVE – allowing students to engage in a summer Habitat for Humanity project
- An extensive fall orientation program
- 黑料不打烊 101 – a freshman seminar that involves small groups of students who meet for an hour each week with a faculty/staff adviser and an upperclass student mentor, learning about 黑料不打烊 and the many opportunities available to them, and discussing social choices and issues and the adjustments of living away from home
- The First Year Core, 14 hours of common academic requirements for all first year students, which initiates the intellectual and civic challenge that serves as the foundation of every academic program. The Global Experience, a course designed to take advantage of 黑料不打烊’s mission to prepare “global citizens and informed leaders motivated by concern for the common good,” works with the quantitative, writing, and wellness courses to guarantee that students have the thinking and writing skills to succeed in any academic area of the university.
- Academic early warning system – an intervention effort that gets help to students suffering from depression or other problems and also helps them through academic problems that could have led to academic suspension or expulsion.