Engaging Students in the First Year (Mon. 2/10)
One of the main aspects of improving the first year experience was to have better advisor training for professors that teach Freshman Year Seminar courses. Additionally, there was strong emphasis on creating an advising that spans the four year and has a more uniform vision of advising. On another subject, there was also a general belief that 100 level courses should be reworked to make them less major-focused and more integrative.
Integrative Learning and
Advising Beyond the First Year (Tues. 2/11)
There was a consensus that there needs to be integrated advising beyond the first year. This may include multiple advisors from different departments or structural systems of advising that go beyond Freshman Year Seminar professors. Similarly, many voted in favor of powerful integrated advising for the first three semesters as opposed to the first year. Another priority included an integrated senior project or research project that every student must complete at some point during his/her four years.
Making Excellence Inclusive (Wed. 2/12)
Perhaps the most overwhelming consensus of all the town hall meetings was the need for increased student accessibility on and around campus. This umbrella term of “student accessibility” includes transportation to the local New London community and beyond, campus facilities that are accommodating to all, available academic and social resources, etc. Importantly, at the core of student accessibility is the need to break down the barriers to access and make the learning experience at Conn optimal and equitable for all students.
SGA reVISION Town Hall (Thurs. 2/13)
Unlike the other town hall meetings, the SGA meeting covered a wide range of topics instead of focusing on one aspect of reVision.Overall, almost everyone agreed that topics the reform should address include: changes to advising and mentoring at the College, from better consolidating the many advisors Conn students receive to better training advisors to work with the individual needs of students; an improved use of Spring and Summer breaks, such as more class trips and programing; and a change in the nature of Conn’s relationship with New London, including more ways to volunteer as groups and more service components to classes.
GE Courses – Implications for Departments and Majors
(Fri. 2/14)
The point of most importance was the standardization of General Education and Freshman Year Seminar courses with continued oversight. In our current system, once a course is approved as a Gen Ed it stays that way indeterminately, with little regard given to the content of the course after each year or in relation to other GEs. Having a GE template would mean more supervision of GE courses with specific outcome goals. Closely following this was the need for flexibility of requirements to allow for further exploration and a designed GE curriculum with an intentional progression and structure.
