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About a quarter of UNM freshmen don’t return for a third semester, and a new program launched this year aims to combat that.
First-semester freshman Rachel Riley said she had trouble deciding which classes to take and that she didn’t know how to structure her class schedule. She said if she had more advisement during the registration process, she probably would be having a better experience her freshman year.
“I feel like if that had happened, I wouldn’t have taken some classes at the times I did,” she said. “Other than that, I have had a really great time so far. I’m finally getting the hang of balancing my social and school time.”
At UNM, about 76 percent of students who were freshmen last year returned for a third semester this year. In order to gauge how to improve the freshman experience for students like Riley, UNM President Robert Frank and Provost Chaouki Abdallah adopted the Foundations of Excellence.
Administrators were given $40,000 to fund the program, which officially launched at a Student Success Summit on Sept. 19.
The program includes more than 200 students, faculty and staff members who volunteer to work on the nine dimensions of the program. These include an organization dimension, which will provide a coherent first-year experience to all students through both curricular and extra-curricular actives, and a transitions dimension, which will outline the University’s responsibilities to students, including support for educational success. It will also communicate clear curricular and co-curricular expectations.
Members of each dimension will meet at the next summit on Feb. 27.
In November, program organizers will issue a survey for freshmen that will include a series of questions related to the dimensions in order to help guide the decisions made within each dimension.
Associate Provost for Curriculum Greg Heileman said that until March 2013, members will assess the reasons behind retention problems at the University and collect and respond to questions that arise from research. He said that after research is completed, an action plan will be developed to improve the freshman experience.
“The retention is a byproduct. We want the first-year experience to be meaningful here, to be world class,” he said. “This is a research one institution that is flagship in the state; this should be an unbelievable experience for freshmen coming in. We need to make it better and so that’s what we want to get out of this.”
UNM student Zachary Trevathan said that because he had to commute to campus his freshman year, he was less involved on campus than other freshmen may have been. He said the University should provide a program that ensures students become involved with the University.
“I feel like I missed out on some cool opportunities,” he said. “I wish there had been an outreach program for kids who had to commute.”
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