Center for the First Year Experience Committee

Hello World,

So this is, unfortunately, the first and last(and only) post for the Center for the First Year Experience(CFYE) for this academic year. Good thing for you readers everything that has been discussed is all here =) !

CFYE met twice this semester on April 8 & 15th. The first meeting was with the CFYE staff, myself and a few other students and the second one was a repeat of the first but with faculty from across campus. The basic thing that came out of these meetings was discussion of the Orientation Review Project. CFYE was and still is coming up with ways to make their current programming more effective and beneficial for students.

Below is all the literature from the meetings. Do keep in mind that ALL Ideas listed are only IDEAS nothing is final or even in the the process. The goal of these Ideas is to solicit feedback from STUDENTS and faculty alike. (So if you see something awful or something you would really like comment!)
Here it goes!

Current Programming (done by CFYE):
-Freshman SOAR: 2day sessions throughout June/July. Condensed 1day sessions in late August & January. Components on academic Advising, enrollment, "campus life" and building social connections. Concurrent parent/guest program.

-Transfer SOAR: 1day sessions throughout June/July and late August, January. Emphasis on academic advising and enrollment. Little information on resources, "campus life" and social connections. Concurrent parent program.

-Wisconsin Welcome: Large & Small scale events prior to classes through the first month. Events are social informational & welcoming. Attendance is optional.

Philosophical "Big Ideas"
-Removing most discussion of campus life issues from summer programming and emphasizing academics only. Capitalizing on campus life programming that already occurs within University Housing in the fall.
-Development of more online components for pre-orientation, such as Interest Exploration and Academic Information provision.
-Structured Fall/First-week program series themed on the Wisconsin Experience. Large Presentations followed by small-group discussion in residence halls.
- "Welcome " events(Social & WI Experience) occurring primarily during the first week of classes, not several days before.
-Transfer students would participate in targeted programming tracks for fall experiences.
-Summer parent program focused more on parenting and transition issues rather than detailed information(which would still be provided in print and online).

Logistical "Big Ideas"
-Length of the summer program, options include
*Restructured 2day program(noon-noon) that incorporates advising components on both days
*1day(8am-5pm) program focused almost entirely on advising and enrollment
*Distance advising and enrollment
-Summer sessions occur from mid- June through late- August continuously(with short breaks)
-Increase total number of sessions and decrease attendance at each session





Comment away, I will forward all comments to the CFYE Chair and I will send her a link to this also>

CFYE website: http://www.newstudent.wisc.edu/index.html

Good Luck on Finals!
-Jasmine "Jay" Savoy

Dean of Students' Advisory Board April 15th

The April 15th ODOS Advisory Board meeting marked the last meeting of this year. The agenda for our last meeting was a presentation by Wren Singer and Carren Martin from CFYE on the new student orientation, a division name change for the Office of the Dean of Students, and our "year in review".
The presentation by CFYE was to get the advisory boards' opinion on the re-evaluation of SOAR programs. CFYE had plenty of ideas for how they would like to change SOAR in the coming years. One of the ideas was to take away most of the "student life" information from the SOAR dates and move it into the control of University Housing once the students move in. CFYE said they would like to do this to make room for more advising and enrollment help. Because of of the biggest problems with SOAR now is the second day enrollment period, CFYE wants to give students more time to learn about enrollment and classes before they have to actually do it. Also the board gave CFYE the suggestion to add more online pre-enrollment options for students so they can take a look at possible classes and the Student Center before they attend SOAR. Also CFYE would like to make the parents' part of SOAR more about the transition and how to parent their children while they are at college. With all these proposed changes CFYE also suggested offering two options for SOAR; a two day period running from noon the first day to noon the second, and a one day option for those who are traveling a long distance. Another thing CFYE proposed changing was Wisconsin Welcome Week. That first week before classes start has been the worst time for students taken to detox and there are high costs for opening the dorms and other buildings up that early. CFYE would like to move move-in day closer to the start of the school year and transfer Welcome Week activities to the first week of classes. The board warned CFYE that those couple of days before school starts, while costly to the University, are invaluable to incoming students. That is their time to explore the campus and get settled before the crunch of classes begin. CFYE made the point to mention that none of these suggestions will go into effect for this falls upcoming SOAR dates.
The next item on the boards' agenda was a name change for the Office of the Dean of Students. There is much confusion between ODOS and the Dean of Students' Office. The first is the entire collection of programs and offices inside Bascom and the later is specifically the Deans' offices. The board was told that the entire office was surveyed on what they would like the name to be changed to and it came to a consensus that "Division of..." should be included in the title. With that the board was given several options for names and after debate about whether the name should be more "student-friendly" or authoritarian, the board decided that the "Division of Student Life" was the most appropriate. This decision was passed on to Dean Berquam (who had to leave the meeting before this conversation took place).
The last thing we covered was just a short "year in review". We quickly went over all the major topics the board had covered this school year. The board was thanked for our service that our last meeting of the school year adjourned.
If you have any questions feel free to post a comment!
Rebecca