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Building
on discussions at a conference in March 2003,
the Engagement Project provided grants
to ACM member colleges interested in looking at how they engage
students in their liberal arts education. Applicants responded to
a request for proposals, and were selected by a subcommittee of
academic deans. Supported projects were:
Community
Resources for Experiential Education
Beloit College
Colleges are increasingly interested in experiential education-pedagogies
that connect academic reflection and out-of-class experiences. The
communities surrounding our campuses offer resources for such experiential
education, but colleges often do not know how to take advantage
of them. This project hoped to increase student engagement in the
Beloit area, develop a systematic approach to determining community
needs and matching students to help meet them, and channel the zeal
and know-how from experiential learning back into the classroom.
It brought together faculty and students from the Department of
Modern Languages and Literatures, the linguistics program, and the
dance program, along with on-campus offices, such as Field and Career
Services and the student-run Outreach Center, to coordinate efforts
in placing volunteers. Project leaders established a clearinghouse
and database for local off-campus engagement opportunities, and
developed a set of evaluation tools for participating agencies and
student volunteers to obtain feedback on how successful the program
and specific placements have been. The final
report is now available. For more information, contact Sylvia
López, Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures,
Beloit College, lopezs@beloit.edu
Connecting with Chicago Resources for Experiential Education
Lake Forest College
The college studied ways to both improve the current use of Chicago
resources within the Lake Forest College curriculum, and explored
new ways to do so. This project aimed to enhance the academic programs
of Lake Forest College, and also to provide a general model to ACM
colleges for successful utilization of off-campus resources. Over
the past decade Lake Forest has increasingly connected its curriculum
with the city, which brings with it both the advantage of expanded
resources and the challenge of creating Chicago experiences which
fit the constraints of curricular and co-curricular scheduling.
A team of faculty and staff discussed how to best facilitate the
implementation of these new Chicago-based opportunities for students,
hoping to determine not only the what, where, why and how to best
incorporate Chicago resources into the Lake Forest College curriculum,
but also the feasibility of creating a semester residency for students
to experience Chicago more fully while exploring an academic internship,
senior thesis and/or advanced independent coursework. They worked
with ACM's Chicago programs, as well as other resources in the city.
The final report is now available.
For more information, contact Rami Levin, Associate Dean of the
Faculty, Lake Forest College, levin@lakeforest.edu.
Creating
a Coherent First Year Experience
St.
Olaf College
The college developed an innovative model of inquiry for exploring
in depth the profile of its incoming students, with special emphasis
on certain groups whose numbers are on the rise, such as first-generation
college students and students from other underrepresented groups.
The goal was to go beyond a purely demographic understanding of
the students and to understand what the students' characteristics
mean for the curriculum, the pedagogy, and the types of support
services the college offers. In addition, the project described
the purpose, methods, and desired outcomes of each of the component
parts of the first year experience, as well as articulated the overall
vision, including goals and expectations, of the first year of a
liberal arts education at St. Olaf College. The project determined
the compatibility between the students the college enrolls and the
first year experience it provides, and if the college is making
the best possible use of its resources. The final
report is now available. For more information, contact Mary
Cisar, Registrar, St. Olaf College, cisar@stolaf.edu
Essays
on Liberal Education
Beloit College
A group of Beloit student, faculty, and alumni wrote a set of essays,
offering perspectives on the meaning of liberal education, in a
form to which first year students could relate. The goal was to
have a set of writings that could stimulate discussion about educational
goals and help students start developing thoughtful ideas about
their own education. The booklet could be used in a first-year seminar,
or distributed to a wider audience. They commissioned three essays
from undergraduates; one from a first year student, one from a junior
or sophomore, and one from a senior. There were two alumni essays,
one from a young alumnus/a and another from an older person. The
three faculty essays were chosen to provide a cross-section of disciplines.
The essays were reproduced in booklet form, and distributed to representatives
of the ACM schools. The final report
is now available. For more information, contact Tom McBride, Chair
& Professor of English & Keefer Professor of Humanities, mcbridet@beloit.edu
Holistic
Curricular Review
Coe College
Over the two two years a group of Coe faculty, staff, and students
pursued a creative, comprehensive approach to curricular review
with the goal of producing an integrated set of general education
requirements. This process could serve as a useful model for other
liberal arts colleges with similar demographics both within and
beyond the ACM. Capitalizing on a recent change in Coe's academic
calendar, they undertook a campus-wide re-examination of the many
elements of their curriculum with the expectation of building a
distinctive general education plan that goes beyond course distribution
and emphasizes instead experiences, cross-curricular skills and
intellectual challenges. They envisioned a review process that in
itself provides faculty and staff development and was collaborative
on our own campus and with consortial colleagues. The project helped
involve faculty in dialogue with ACM colleagues, with nationally
recognized speakers, and with each other and which supported attendance
at relevant conferences to enrich their process. A final
report is available. For more information, contact Gina Hausknecht,
Associate Dean and Associate Professor of English, Coe College,
ghauskne@coe.edu
Information
Literacy and Writing Across the Curriculum: Synergies for Student
Learning
Carleton College
Information literacy offers continuing challenges to faculty, library
staff, and students as resources change and research habits evolve.
Consequently, faculty who assign written work in all disciplines
benefit from current knowledge of and experience with information
literacy. Secure grounding in both information literacy and Writing
Across the Curriculum (WAC) theory informs classroom practices.
Faculty can draw on information literacy and WAC knowledge to construct
assignments that help students navigate among research resources
(information literacy) as they consolidate their learning (through
WAC) as liberal arts graduates. Carleton College hosted a conference
on July 31-August 2, 2005, for faculty, librarians, and others interested
in the connections between Information Literacy and Writing Across
the Curriculum as essential techniques for teaching and learning
on liberal arts campuses. A final report
is now available. For
more information contact Carol Rutz, Director, Writing Program,
Carleton College, crutz@carleton.edu
or visit the conference's web
site.
Interdisciplinary
Faculty Seminar
Beloit College
Interdisciplinary studies are generating intellectual excitement
at Beloit College. In recent year faculty have taught numerous interdisciplinary
seminars, advised students who are creating their own interdisciplinary
majors, and worked on the establishment of an interdisciplinary
studies center. As part of this initiative, the college planned
an interdisciplinary faculty seminar in the spring of 2004 taught
by a visiting Fulbright Scholar, Wanjiku Chiuri, and hosted an ACM
workshop focused on multidisciplinary centers at liberal arts colleges.
A final report is available.
For more information, contact Diane Lichtenstein, Associate Dean
of the College, Beloit College, lichtens@beloit.edu
A
Profile of the Humanities
The College of the University Of Chicago
This project examined undergraduate engagement in the humanities
in light of the increasing concern with professionalization among
college students. Its goal was to understand and address the decline
in humanities majors as students more often seek "practical" instruction
in response to careerist concerns, which are often motivated by
the high cost of education. It researched students' understandings
of the humanities and career possibilities in an effort to better
educate them about how the humanities might lead to a variety of
potential career paths. Critical to the study was a series of surveys
administered to undergraduates during the 2003-2004 academic year.
The surveys elicited student perspectives on the role of the humanities
within their liberal arts education, with particular attention to
their choice of major. The study concluded with a report which proposed
a coordinated program that will engage administration, staff, faculty,
academic departments and other offices to increase humanities enrollment.
The final report is now available.
For more information, contact Deborah S. Neibel, Career Office,
University of Chicago, dneibel@uchicago.edu
Qualitative
Research on Student Engagement
Beloit College
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has provided colleges
and universities, including ACM institutions, excellent data concerning
college student experiences, but there remains a paucity of knowledge
regarding questions of why students do, or, do not become engaged
in campus programs, academic courses and student life. In order
to investigate information not obtained through quantitative survey
data, this project devised and implemented a qualitative research
agenda that pursues knowledge of student cultures, and examines
their attitudes and opinions regarding issues of student engagement.
The process restructured the existing exit interview procedure at
Beloit College in order to provide qualitative data to expand and
support findings from participation in NSSE 2004. The new interview
structure attempted to answer questions such as those regarding
how students become engaged learners; what student expect of faculty,
staff and administration; what encourages or impedes communication
between students and faculty, both in and out of the classroom;
and what elements of campus culture are most helpful or harmful
in influencing the College's learning and social environments. The
result of this project created a qualitative research model that
could help ACM colleges and universities obtain better understandings
of the phenomena surrounding student engagement, and, in turn, improve
the efficacy of educational practices on member campuses. A report
is now available.
Second
Semester Reunion and Sophomore Escape
Ripon College
For several years the college has had a successful First Year Seminar
program, which lets incoming students experience the liberal arts
and learn what college life is like. The seminars also provide a
foundation for Ripon's ESC (Explore-Select-Connect) curricular model.
The ESC curriculum guides students through each stage of their academic
program, from the exploration of a wide range of liberal arts courses,
to selecting an academic program, to connecting with a major and
its capstone experiences. But the second semester of the first year
and the sophomore year remain a gap in the program. To fill that
gap, this project offered a second semester reunion for first-year
students and a half-day escape for first-semester sophomores. These
programs provided ongoing academic support and suggested ways to
keep students engaged in their education. The final
report is available. For more information, contact Dean Pape,
Coordinator of First-Year Studies, Ripon College, paped@ripon.edu
Sophomore
Year Strategies
Monmouth
College and Knox College
These colleges have a shared commitment that both academic and co-curricular
experiences of the sophomore year should nurture the continuing
engagement of students with liberal learning. They identified a
set of indicators of the sophomore year's effectiveness, revealed
common elements of student experience that may be shared across
ACM campuses, identified institution-specific concerns, and developed
an informed basis for the design and implementation of programs
and practices which will enhance the sophomore year experience.
Through collaboration, comparison, and campus-specific efforts the
project resulted in data and strategies to strengthen the sophomore
year which other ACM colleges can consider.
The final report is available. For more
information, contact Mark Willhardt, Assistant Professor of English
at Monmouth College, mwill@monm.edu
or Diana Beck, Associate Professor of Educational Studies at Knox
College, dbeck@knox.edu
Thinking
on Paper: A New Approach to Writing
Cornell College
This project developed a new approach to writing across the curriculum.
This approach engaged students during their first three semesters
in different forms of writing in various disciplines as a part of
general education preparatory to focused major study. As a matter
of prior consideration it also engaged faculty members, staff members,
and students in determining appropriate institutional objectives
and outcomes for undergraduate writing at Cornell; the identification
or creation of related writing assignments and courses incorporating
those assignments; and the gathering, evaluation, and certification
of student portfolios showing satisfactory completion of the assignments
as required. A final report is now
available. For more information, contact Michelle Mouton, Assistant
Professor of English, Cornell College, mmouton@cornellcollege.edu
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