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Engaging Today's Students with the Liberal Arts |
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The Colorado College |
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Strengths The Block Plan: We've had small, concentrated learning communities since 1970, long before the expression 'learning community' became ubiquitous in higher education. Students at Colorado College are able to immerse themselves in a subject without stealing time from one class for another and to concentrate for three-and-a-half weeks upon a single topic. The First Year Program: We have a tripartite program for first year students that includes dedicated curriculum-based courses in the first two blocks, a peer mentoring program, and a student-life-side 'continuing the conversation' component. All first year students receive an introduction to the Writing Center as well as to the library in their first year courses. The program is in its third year. Student Mentor (Peer Advisor) Program: Academically successful sophomore, junior and senior student mentors are attached to the first year courses and continue working with their group of first year students throughout the academic year; they advise new students during pre-registration for courses and introduce new students to campus life. Career Center Interviews: Career Center counselors meet with every first year student in the fall semester to discuss possible careers in light of the student's interests and abilities. The Writing Center: Peer tutors staff a Center with an active outreach program to all students; the Center is widely used and well established on campus. The Colket Center for Academic Success (CCAS): The new student learning center has received a boost from a founding gift (hence the Colket Center) and a supplementary grant from the Priddy Trust that will underwrite the cost of a new building. The center will eventually combine the Writing Center with a new Quantitative Reasoning Center; its staff will include a learning specialist, a professional QR tutor and peer tutors in writing and quantitative reasoning. New Director of First Year and Sophomore Studies and Advising: The Priddy grant will underwrite the cost of a new administrative position and staff assistant associated with the CCAS. The director will take up the administrative aspects of the academic component of the first year program and will assist in the development of a strong advising program for first year and sophomore students. Student-Faculty Collaborative Grants: The College strongly supports student research in a number of ways, including summer grants for student-faculty collaborative research and independent study under faculty direction. Venture Grants: Students may apply for funds for independent research projects of all sorts, many involving travel, presentations at conferences, and collaborative work with faculty and fellow students. Small Classes: Colorado College caps all classes taught by a single instructor at 25 (and team-taught courses at 32). We offer no large introductory lecture classes. Liberal Arts and Science Degree: Students with strong interdisciplinary interests may devise their own major program of study; such programs are carefully vetted and approved by the Dean's Advisory Committee and require both depth and breadth, as well as a capstone senior project. Study Abroad: Approximately 60% of our students study abroad at some time in their college careers. Registration Process: Our course registration process does not disadvantage first year and sophomore students relative to junior and senior students; all students receive the same number of 'points' with which they bid on courses. The course registration process is effective and democratic. Major Declaration at the end of the Sophomore Year: Students may not declare a major until the end of their sophomore year, although they may take courses that will count toward their major before that time. Challenges The Block Plan: Three-and-a-half week blocks tends to mean an intense experience, but also, at moments, a fragmentary one. The block plan is both strength and challenge. Advising for First Years and Sophomores: Once students declare a major, they are typically well advised, but matching entering students with advisors and providing strong developmental guidance in the first and sophomore years is a challenge for us. Sophomore Slump: We've begun to be more mindful about the first year experience, but we haven't yet paid close attention to sophomore students' needs. Senior Year Experience: Most of our majors include some form of capstone experience in the form of a senior seminar or senior research project (or gallery show or recital), but it would be good for us to review our current senior year structures and to plan more mindfully for reflective senior experiences for our students. Student Mentor Program: The student mentor program is a very promising component of our first year program but we are still working on ways to link mentors with first years, providing enough structure to make the experience meaningful and useful for both without over-regimenting the program. Review of First Year Program in 2003-2004: The First Year Program is due for review next year; we anticipate some changes but expect that some form of programming for new students will remain in place. Block Visitors: Visitors are both a strength and a challenge; they provide enhancement of the curriculum (the block plan enables us to bring exciting professionals to campus for a month at a time-whereas a semester would not be possible for them), but are sometimes not effective teachers within the block plan structure. They are here and then they are gone, emphasizing, sometimes, the fragmenting quality of the block plan for students. Project We have a number of initiatives already underway: the Priddy Grant with all that it entails, the new student learning center, and the First Year Program itself, with its impending review. We really don't need to develop yet another project. Instead, we'd like to concentrate upon refining an existing structure-the student mentor program-and to prepare a foundation for the new Director of First Year and Sophomore Studies by thinking through some possible programming for sophomore students. Team Members
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Return to: College strengths Return to: Engagement Project |
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