UC Berkeley Schools/University Partnerships
Berkeley Outreach Roundtable Symposium
Passing the Baton
May 14, 2001
11:30 am - 4:00 pm
There were over 60 individuals who attended the May 14 Symposium, "Passing the Baton." The
symposium was organized into 5 areas: 1) Opening Remarks; 2) Welcome; 3) Overview of UC
Berkeley Schools/ University Partnerships (outreach and academic support services); 4) Panel of
Student and Staff Speakers; 5) Small Group Discussion Sessions; and 6) Closing Remarks.
Opening Remarks - Gloria Burkhalter-Simmons, Coordinator of the UC Berkeley
Schools/University Partnerships for Academic Support and Enrichment Services, and Director of
Student Life Advising Services, opened the session by stating that the purpose of the symposium
was to strengthen connections between the outreach and UC academic support groups, and to
explore ways to work collaboratively to facilitate the transition of students to Cal.
Welcome - Associate Vice Chancellor Richard Black, Admissions and Enrollment, formally
welcomed the participants and emphasized the value and importance of making sure that
students have a successful transition to Cal and are connected to academic support services.
Richard Black also noted that more than 40% of high school graduates in California are
underrepresented, and that we not only need to admit more students in this category, but we also
need to support them throughout their stay at Cal.
Overview of UC Berkeley Schools/University Partnerships - Director Gail Kaufman, UC
Berkeley Schools/University Partnerships, shared information on the University’s conceptual
framework and implementation plan in support of outreach. With regards to organizational
changes, Gail noted that the Berkeley Pledge is now referred to as School and University
Partnerships. Gail also emphasized the following needs pertaining to outreach:
-wide effort.
nt outcomes – increasing student achievement.
– need to work together to increase our communication.
and collaboration.
Overview of UC Academic Support and Enrichment Services (ASES) - Gloria BurkhalterSimmons stated that the mission of ASES is to assist the University in creating an environment
that fosters student success, and to support students’ efforts toward graduate/professional
schools and careers. She further stated that ASES concentrates its efforts on 3 major areas:
transitional activities; activities designed to enhance student success; and activities that prepare
students for graduate/professional schools and careers. The group’s priority goals are to:
•Explore and assess the first-year experience of students at Cal;
•Define and identify “at risk” student populations;
•Explore the use of computer technology to improve academic support services;
•Assist in the areas of program assessment and evaluation; and
•Assist in creating partnerships and conduits between early outreach, recruitment,
retention, graduate/professional schools and career services.
A Snapshot of Our Outreach Students - Director Gregg Thomson, Office of Student Research,
presented statistics on UC Berkeley undergraduates who reported participation in an outreach
program in high school. Highlighted below are some of Gregg’s comments about the data:
•The quality of outreach data is not good.
• Fall 2001 numbers are projections only.
•Number of new freshmen reporting EAOP, MESA, Upward Bound has more than
doubled from 1998-2001, from 215 to about 463.
•The numbers of outreach freshmen from the Bay Area, Los Angeles and elsewhere
in the state all have more than doubled.
•For outreach freshmen admits from the Bay Area, the increase from fall 2000 to fall
2001 is Vietnamese & Chinese; for other freshmen admits, there's a sharp increase
in Chicano outreach freshmen.
•Fall 2000 yield rates for Bay Area UREM outreach participants were very high.
•All the increase we have seen in the number of new UREM freshmen since 1998 to
2001 is in the outreach group (116 to 209).
•About 47% of our Chicano freshmen, 40% of our African American & 29% of our
Latino freshmen report outreach participation.
•35% of our Vietnamese and 10% of our Chinese freshmen also report outreach.
Overall, 1 in 7 of our new freshmen report outreach participation.
•Half of outreach freshmen report parental incomes under $30,000 and 60% report
that their fathers have no college experience whatsoever.
•Outreach participants are an increasing proportion of our freshmen from low
socio-economic backgrounds, for example, more than 40% of freshmen with
fathers without a high school education and 25% of those with no more than a
high school diploma
•The retention rates for outreach participants from time of entry through the end of
last fall semester are quite good, 90% for fall 1998 freshmen (vs. 92% for nonoutreach) and 94% for 1999 freshmen (vs. 97% for non-outreach).
•Outreach freshmen are less than half as likely, however, to have very high (3.5
and above) cumulative Berkeley GPA's (for 1999 freshmen: 11% vs. 28%).
•African America, Chicano & Latino outreach freshmen appear to perform almost
as well as their non-outreach counterparts, despite significant socio-economic
disadvantage. Still, few of this group have very high GPA's.
Panel of Speakers - Associate Director Eva Rivas, College of Letters and Science, served as
moderator to four different panel of speakers from outreach and academic support groups.
Outreach Program Staff Perspectives: Staff from a number of outreach programs were invited to
share information regarding: 1) the goals of their program; 2) their role with students in the
program; and 3) their perceptions of the needs of newly admitted students in their program.
Following is a list of the speakers and some of their comments/suggestions:
Early Academic Outreach Programs (EAOP), Maria Ledesma
•EAOP work with first-generation students.
•There are approximately 4900 EAOP students throughout the Bay Area (i.e., within
the State of California
•Outreach centers, counseling, financial and academic support are among some of the needs.
Professional Development Program (PDP), Steven Chin
•Work with students prior to and during their enrollment at Cal.
and
expectations of UCB.
•Try to get teachers to work together, and to “get out of the box.”
•Provide tutorials and peer groups at the elementary level.
Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA), George Gagnon & Michelle DeCoteau
o are eligible especially for
engineering and math.
•Can be a better advocate on behalf of students if they could be identified earlier
(i.e., with a list of the MESA students before entering UCB, MESA could help
students with writing their admission statement, obtaining scholarships, etc).
•Need a better handoff between High School and UC outreach.
•Need resources in order to provide services in a broad manner to all students (in
addition to target students in MEP).
•Need more communication & coordination between outreach programs & UC
staff.
•The definition of the target group is changing (MESA is serving more nontraditional
targeted students, whites and Asians. Targeted group is composed of African Americans,
Native Americans, and Latinos).
•Students need study and time management skills.
Transfer Alliance Project, Merryl Owen
•Serve the economically disadvantaged from 28 community Colleges, from
Sacramento to San Jose.
•Provide individualized assistance in assisting students with UCB admissions
requirements.
•Review application and personal statements.
•Students need friendly, approachable people and services to navigate through the
system.
Additional Comments:
•Must tell students that support services are available once they get to Berkeley.
•Students need:
- reassurance to prevent isolation;
- academic advising for courses and placement;
-transitional support, like Summer Bridge;
-financial advising/support.
Student Perspectives: A panel of students from outreach programs, talked about their high school
experience in outreach program(s); what they learned from their participation that prepared them
for UCB; and the resources that could have facilitated their transition to Cal.
Upward Bound, Salomon Leon
about campus resources (i.e., Student Life Advising Services, Summer Bridge,
Student Learning Center, etc.).
•Upward Bound helped with understanding what to expect at Cal.
•Cal has a lot of resources, but they need to be better publicized.
EAOP & MESA, Carlos Lara
•EAOP and Summer Bridge helped with learning how to manage time.
•EAOP helped with the admission application, and the personal statement.
•Calapaloosa need more support groups/tables not just fraternities.
Additional Comments
•Students need to know if the outreach program has an office on campus.
•Students need to know the contact people for the program or resources.
Academic Support and Enrichment Services (ASES) - ASES is made up of a team of individuals
from academic support and student services units/departments who meet throughout the year to
discuss and explore ways to assist the University in fostering student success. The following
outcomes of ASES were presented:
EOP Resource Reception, Gloria Burkhalter-Simmons
•In a welcoming environment, new entering EOP freshperson and transfer students
receive information about EOP on the Berkeley campus;
•Students have an opportunity to meet and interact with representatives from over 30
academic support and student services units/departments.
First Year Experience of Freshperson’s at Cal, Liz Keithley
•As a research project, the group gathered information from project participants about
their first year experience at Cal (i.e., closely examined the impact of academic and socioeconomic factors on students’ experience);
•Findings will be made available to UC and outreach groups.
Academic Support Directory, Lisa Kala
•The directory is a listing of academic support services at Cal, and is designed to
strengthen communication, collaboration and networking among students, staff,
faculty, prospective students and the community.
•Contains the mission, goals, descriptions, e-mail addresses, phone
numbers, contact persons, website, etc., of different academic support programs;
•Can serve as a good recruitment tool and resource guide for referrals.
•Funding is needed to connect the directory to the UC Schools/University Partnerships
Home Page.
Small Group Discussion Session/ Facilitating Student Transition to Cal - During the small
group discussion sessions, participants were asked to explore and identify ways to “Bridge”
Outreach and Academic Support to facilitate the transition of students to Cal. Following is a
summary of the discussions/suggestions from the 3 groups:
Group 1: Tom Devlin, Facilitator
Two main ideas emerged:
1. Mentoring Pilot Program –
•Begin with a subset of the approximately 400 outreach students (example-all EAOP
students). These students would be connected directly to a UC Berkeley staff
member (faculty/staff/student) who would serve as a mentor for some period of
time (a range from three months to the entire freshmen year was discussed).
•Identify a process to successfully identify all students involved in outreach, and
create a way to coordinate the transition of these students to Berkeley (case
management).
•Passing of student information from Outreach staff to Berkeley campus staff - - a
personal handoff (“passing the baton”).
2. Directory of Academic Support Programs –
• Make sure the directory is key word searchable for the Student Services area.
Additional Comments:
• As a campus, our strength and weakness is the same – we have so many services,
it is difficult to know where to send students.
• We need to get campus resource information to the people involved in outreach –
•
•
•
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detailed contact/program information.
We need more information on which students can be served by all of the existing
programs, so we can direct students more efficiently.
There should be a stronger connection between student organizations and campus
resources.
The use of acronyms is a foreign language to those outside the Berkeley campus –
we need to work on this.
Create a campus culture that would make it easier for departments/programs to
work together (more collaboration).
Group 2: Evette Castillo, Facilitator
The following ideas/suggestions emerged:
1. Liaisons between programs, i.e., there should exists liaisons between the various
outreach and retention programs, as well as liaisons between the outreach and
campus programs. UCB teams in schools - Integrated Approach ( K-14).
(Emphasis placed on need to include 12-14 grades of community college as outreach
populations).
2. Individual relationships should work collaboratively, not competitively.
3. Get names of students (database) from outreach to key staff of campus programs in
a timely manner.
4. Let students deal with new staff of various programs (good training).
5. Learn from other UC's, CSU's, and Private colleges.
6. Make students feel special, welcomed, desired! Comfortable, safe.
i.e., user-friendly environment in Outreach - use students if possible. Use staff to provide
assistance in planning and support regarding admissions. Be realistic about admissions
chance. Help K-14 students learn that the onus of responsibility is on the student.
7. The quantity of information about various groups overwhelms students.
Best Practices for Information Dissemination:
•Highlight key information & provide additional documentation
•"Outreach Corner" - e-bulletin board
•Make outreach/student services directory available to all staff
•Resource Hotline
•Discipline-specific info support structures
•PUENTE:
Work with cohorts 9-12 over several years
•Provide more regular personal contact w/ campus personnel
Outreach contact should provide info regarding campus contact
Group 3: Lisa Kala, Facilitator
The following issues/concerns emerged:
colleges once they arrive on campus. Smaller colleges and units provide more services
and support (i.e. College of Engineering writes letters (from female faculty) to female
students and informs them of resources.
- lack of resources or staff to meet needs of students.
- what student populations/EAOP Programs are we trying to
serve? What’s in it for them?
How do we encourage students in outreach programs to provide service and help build
community with other students that we are outreaching to?
- students may perceive UCB as not being "welcoming." Perhaps study
groups and cooperative learning needs to be expanded and advertised in strategic
fashion.
In response to the aforementioned issues/concerns, the group proposed the following:
1. Share data/bases among existing programs so that we know who are serving the
same schools and the same students.
2. Develop a comprehensive campuswide Student-level outreach database that can
be accessed by both outreach and academic support units/entities.
3. Develop a way to share important information about students who are served in
outreach programs from other UC campuses and apply/enroll here so they do not fall
through the cracks. (i.e. Mesa in Bay Area and in LA)
4. Make student support programs more publicly visible (i.e. Group support programs
for students at Calapalooza. Have a giant banner that advertises a support web page or
cluster of support programs).
5. Develop an on-line (web page) help and support systems for students and staff to
use (on-line plus face-to-face).
6. Provide face-to-face events/opportunities for students to find out about assistance
on campus (i.e. announcements in undergraduate classes, campus sponsored
activities, etc.).
7. Provide course (mini-course) to assist students.
8. Ask students what their needs and wants are.
9. Use Residence halls differently – get students connected to campus support systems, and
provide strategies and options for assistance after they leave the residence halls.
10. Begin discussions with Admissions (e.g. maybe develop database).Use application
process to better track students in outreach programs, and identify students early
enough to serve them.
11. Keep better track of High school seniors in UC programs, and work out ways to
pass this info to student support groups so we can 'hand them off' to the appropriate
group(s) on campus for continued support.
12. Provide materials to EAOP as a way to inform students of resources on campus.
Wrap-up & Closing Remarks - During the closing remarks, Gloria Burkhalter-Simmons
acknowledged the contributions of staff who helped with planning the symposium, and stated
that the next step is to review, discuss, and explore ways to implement the ideas/suggestions
that emerged from the discussions.