First-Year Study Group
Meeting Minutes
September 27, 2013
In attendance: Connor Baade, Stacey Bradley, Sara Corwin, Dan Friedman, Maegan Gudridge, Stuart Hunter, Nichole
Knutson, Aaron Marterer, Kim McMahon, Bethany Naser, Mary Wagner, Dennis Pruitt
I.
Review the Charge
a. Dennis Pruitt delivered the charge for the group
i. We acknowledge that students come to the university with certain expectations for outcomes of
their college experience (e.g. their major, the social climate of the university)
ii. We understand that the student body has a “common path,” but each individual student also has
his/her own path through the university
iii. Questions to consider as we examine the first-year student experience:
1. What are those students’ individual paths?
2. How do we align students’ expectations with the experiences they are actually having?
3. What are reasons for success or failure as we deliver our services to students?
iv. As we look to develop a new meaning for the first-year experience programs at USC, we should
consider:
1. What happens in the first six weeks?
2. What are other institutions doing?
3. What do we do to insure students have a “fit” here?
4. Does the university calendar work with our programs like welcome week, sorority
recruitment, convocation, FYRE, etc.?
5. How do we connect students to their “support team” (including their Orientation Leader,
ACE/Success Coach, Career Coach, Academic Advisor, and U101 instructor)
v. As we study our students, we should explore:
1. How do we onboard our students?
2. How do we develop affinity?
3. How do we get them attached?
II.
Remarks from the Chair
a. Dan Friedman provided an overview of the committee and outlined the process for future meetings
i. What is excellence in the first year of college and how do we get there?
1. Focus on the prescription (Rx)
a. R=Relevance, x=Excellence
b. Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things right?
ii. As the committee progresses, there will be subgroups formed with committee members as well as
other university staff members to more deeply examine specific areas (e.g. University 101,
orientation, policies and procedures, communications, and transfer students)
b. USC is already successful in programs for the first year of college, but some challenges with the current
reality include:
i. Processes are not aligned or are confusing to students
ii. We have several components of the first-year experience, but they are not integrated. (e.g. U101,
Pillars, Orientation, Welcome Week)
iii. Duplicative communication and processes
First-Year Study Group
Meeting Minutes
September 27, 2013
III.
Overview of the First-Year Study Group Process
a. The committee reviewed the process for the group as outlined in the document “Overview of Process.”
b. The committee discussed the data needed to profile today’s students as outlined in the document
“Questions to Consider for Next Meeting.”
c. The committee identified a need for further examination of policy and process audits, especially
following the transition to Banner.
d. The committee expressed a need to integrate communications efforts to be relevant to the population
receiving it, to be consistent with other university messages, and to be appropriately timed.
IV.
Defining the First-Year Experience and the First-Year Student
a. The committee agreed to work with the following definition of the first-year experience:
i. “The first-year experience is a comprehensive and intentional approach to the first college year,
comprising both curricular and co-curricular initiatives. It is the sum of all experiences students
have in their first year at college (Hunter, 2006).”
b. There was a good discussion on how to define a first-year student for the purpose of this study group.
i. About 60% of first-year students come to Carolina with some sort of academic credit. For
registrar purposes, “traditional” first-year students may be viewed as transfer students based on
the number of credit hours they already have (> 30).
ii. For the purpose of this group, we will work with the understanding that a first-year student is a
first-time, full-time without any postsecondary experience.
1. “A first-time undergraduate student is a student who has no prior postsecondary
experience attending any institution for the first time at the undergraduate level. This
includes students enrolled in academic or occupational programs. It also includes students
enrolled in the fall term who attended college for the first time in the prior summer term,
and students who entered with advanced standing (college credits earned before
graduation from high school) (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
(IPEDS)).”
iii. It was decided that including transfer students in the main study group would pose too many
complications for determining courses of action, making policy decisions, and streamlining
processes. The committee acknowledges that many of the changes to the first-year experience
will apply to the transfer population; however, in order to ensure that the diverse needs of this
group are met, the committee recommends that we look at the transfer population separately,
through a subcommittee or different committee.
V.
Preparing for Next Meeting
a. Committee members were asked to complete a SWOT analysis about USC’s approach to the first-year
experience.
b. Committee members will turn in PowerPoint slides to Dan with information about USC’s student
population.
c. Committee members will identify data (or things we already know) that have potential implications for
policy and practice.