Waubonsee Recognizes the Value of a Solid Start It’s difficult to overestimate just how important a strong foundation is to any endeavor, including a higher education. Recognizing that, Waubonsee recently took a hard look at the experiences of its first-year students as part of its participation in the Foundations of Excellence® (FoE) project. “This is something the college has been interested in doing for a long time,” said Dr. Stacey Randall, Director of Institutional Effectiveness. “We saw the value of participating in Foundations of Excellence and so incorporated the process into our successful Title V grant application.” Over the past nine years, more than 300 two- and four-year colleges and universities nationwide have collaborated with the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education to work through the FoE process. The process breaks down the first-year student experience into nine dimensions, and then asks the college community to rate the institution on those dimensions using survey results and other quantitative and qualitative data as evidence. At Waubonsee, each dimension had a corresponding committee made up of staff, faculty and students, who delved into the questions, criteria and data, while also suggesting action items to improve Waubonsee students’ experiences.
FoE BY THE NUMBERS • 9 committees with more than 100 staff, faculty and student participants • 413 faculty/staff surveyed
“The most exciting thing about this whole project was the interaction and discussion that came about,” Dr. Randall said. “Here were people who may not have ever met or worked together otherwise but who were having conversations about something that everyone knows is important — our students.”
The nine committees suggested a total of 138 action items to improve the first-year experience at • 138 action items generated Waubonsee. A meeting for all FoE participants was held • 7 themes to be addressed in April, with the purpose of grouping and prioritizing these suggestions. The work of that meeting, along with the work of the college’s FoE liaisons to the Gardner Institute — Randall, Vice President of Student Development Melinda James and Professor of Economics/Business Diana Fortier — has led to a list of seven common themes that will be addressed: • 918 students surveyed
• Clearly define the key components of Waubonsee’s first-year experience and how it differs
depending on the type of student.
• Develop a culture of connection between new students and the resources they need to be
successful.
• Enhance communication related to new student initiatives across our four campus network. • Establish new data-tracking systems that will allow the college to improve data-informed
decision making.
• Refine and clarify policies related to student access and success. • Increase staff and faculty professional development related to first-year students. • Evaluate and refine student learning outcomes, curriculum and instructional methods to
ensure first-year student success.
During the 2012-13 academic year, action teams will be formed around these themes so that tangible progress can be made and measured. In addition, the college will once again embark on the same FoE self-study process, but this time with a focus on the transfer student experience. Funding for Waubonsee’s participation in the Foundations of Excellence project is coming from a larger $3.2-million “Removing Barriers to Student Success” Title V grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
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