CUE at Queens College: Cultivating Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Queens College, committed to ensuring that all students succeed, continues its mission to integrate all facets of the undergraduate experience by “providing students with a broad education that connects and integrates the different areas of knowledge and understanding they will encounter over the course of their undergraduate career” (Report of the President’s Task Force on General Education, 2004). CUE at Queens College is not simply a collection of programs funded by the University’s CUE Project, it is an idea that transcends these programs; it touches all areas of our students’ undergraduate experience, and it engages the entire college community in its vision. It moves beyond the territory of individual programs to make the fragments whole, as indicated in the figure below.

The findings of the Task Force on Retention (October 2005) concerning graduation rates, the College’s survey and assessment of the undergraduate experience as a result of the first part of the Campaign for Success, and our students’ ongoing difficulties with mathematics, and the challenges of reading and writing, particularly for our ESL students, all indicate the urgency of confronting these realities. The CUNY Campaign for Student Success: A Plan in Four Parts articulates the crucial challenges facing the University and identifies the key areas to be addressed by the colleges in order for change to be actualized. Queens College, aware of the enormity of the academic and personal challenges facing large numbers of our students, created its own CUE Council.

In its commitment to foster student success by improving retention, the College works to integrate all aspects of the undergraduate experience and provide faculty, full time and adjunct, professional development opportunities for the improvement of pedagogy. To this end, the College views the Center for Teaching and Learning as its pedagogical core, particularly with regard to the new General Education curriculum that will be piloted. Its mission is to promote, sustain, and recognize ways to improve the quality of teaching and learning at the College. It will collaborate with WAC, and the academic deans and their departments, and be directly connected to all aspects of undergraduate education. This connection is a key element in the College’s goals and targets for the coming academic year; it will be the catalyst for improving undergraduate education and retention by putting into practice strategies and programs to “improve teaching and learning through faculty development, pedagogical innovation and academic support” (CUNY Campaign for Success: A Plan in Four Parts, 2006).

In addition to the bedrock programs of Academic Advising and Academic Support, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning, will play an important role in faculty development and assessment across the disciplines. To bring this vision into being, and to create a “community of practice,” the College has identified an appropriate space that will house the Center for Teaching and Learning, the WAC program, and the Faculty Development Laboratory, for “when the work of communities of practice is created and fostered, individual experience becomes communal, distributed expertise can be shared, and standards of practice can evolve” (Lee S. Shulman, The Wisdom of Practice: Essays on Teaching, Learning, and Learning to Teach, 2004). Facilitated by the Center for Teaching and Learning, the directors of Academic Support, WAC, and Composition, together with faculty in Mathematics and the Sciences, will be involved directly in the following practices: creating opportunities for faculty to reflect on the philosophy and practice of teaching with the aim of adopting pedagogies to enhance teaching and learning; the development of strategies to address the failure rates in gateway courses and the academic needs of ESL students; the partnership of faculty, Academic Advising, and Academic Support to create student awareness of, and academic interventions for, the CPE. This semester the Academic Support program ran three mini-courses to prepare students for the CPE. Forty-one students enrolled and thirty-nine passed the examination. Full-time and adjunct faculty participation is essential for these projects, for as Linda Darling-Hammond states, “Teacher expertise is the single most important determinant of student achievement. Effective professional development for teachers should engage them both as learners and teachers, allowing them to struggle with each role’s uncertainties” (“Learning to Teach in the 21st Century,” Educational Leadership, 78:1 [1998]).

The CUE Program at Queens is composed of: FYI, The Advising Center, Academic Support, WAC, and SEEK Summer and January programs. These programs are the funded ones, but as the College’s CUE diagram indicates, all programs and offices devoted to undergraduate education are involved. For example, the Office of Honors and Scholarships is a part of the College’s CUE Council and provides the opportunity for the early identification and nurturing of students. The Honors Advisory Committee was established to provide a discussion forum for Queens College honors directors to share practices that foster student success. The College believes that such an integrated approach to undergraduate education will provide for students:

· A campus environment where they are actively involved in learning

· A viable roadmap to timely graduation

· A clear articulation of General Education and degree requirements

· Planned interventions to ensure that gateway courses are not barriers to success

Middle States and NCATE accreditation provide a context for a focused approach to the concept of student-centered pedagogy coupled with outcomes-based evaluation. Both accreditations require CUNY campuses to demonstrate that the faculty is implementing outcomes-based teaching, and the College is actively engaged in assessing how students are performing with respect to certain identifiable learning outcomes. The College will undergo the Performance Management Process to assess how well it has met its goals and targets. Many of the CUE goals parallel the Performance Management Process. The College will participate and compare data in the National Survey of Student Engagement in 2007 to help assess the level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, supportive campus environment, and Enriching Educational Experiences. The College has data from this survey for 2000 and 2005. Finally, Queens College will work closely with the CUNY Central Office to provide assessment data that will be useful as the College continues to fulfill its mission “to prepare students to become leading citizens of an increasingly global society.”

X Critical Junctures ↻ Faculty Development ↻ WAC ↻ Pilot Programs (Please check all that apply)

The Academic Support Center: Maximizing Student Success through Academic Support

Program Description

Queens College will integrate seven key academic support programs that we view as essential in maximizing student success in the first two years of undergraduate study: Summer and January programs, Advisement, Tutorial Support in Writing and Reading, Expanded Evening and Weekend Support in Writing and Reading, Content Tutoring across Disciplines, and CPE Support.

The Summer Program will serve exclusively Queens College students: conditionally admitted students, including transfer students, who need to certify in one or more of the basic skills areas; new, continuing, and transferring ESL students who have not certified in Reading and/or Writing; re-entering ESL and English as a Primary Language (EPL) students; and others intending to enroll in Queens College in the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semester. Reading and Writing offerings will be transformed from a predominantly test-preparation program to one that emphasizes the essential critical thinking and academic literacy skills necessary to work effectively with the general curriculum. All offerings will be taught in a content-rich reading environment, using readings drawn from typical college sources such as textbooks, essays, newspaper articles, and fiction. Those students whom we feel are ready to re-test on the ACT at the end of the summer course will be invited to do so. For those students who have certified in Reading and have near-passing scores on the ACT Writing Test, we will address test preparation, but the curriculum will involve all aspects of academic literacy development: reading, listening, speaking, and, of course, writing. A library component will be included to enhance the abilities and techniques that students will need to succeed as Queens College students. If feasible, we will run separate sections of summer courses for new incoming students and continuing students. Similarly, we will attempt to offer separate sections of writing for students who must pass the ACT to be admitted to the College.

Advisement: To integrate our Summer and January Programs into the freshman year experience, exiting students will meet with an academic advisor to plan their semester courses and possible participation in the FYI program. For CPE advisement, we will reach out to students who have absented themselves from the examination or who have failed it, making sure that they understand the requirements and encouraging them to take advantage of the available support services. Registration stops will be used to ensure that these students meet with an advisor to discuss the CPE requirement, the preparations they should make, and the support services that are available to increase the likelihood of succeeding on the examination. For students finding themselves in jeopardy due to multiple CPE failures, advisement will be pointed, aggressive, and well-coordinated between the various offices responsible for delivering services and enforcing requirements.

January Program: We will offer a January Program for Spring semester incoming students and continuing ESL students. We will limit enrollment to those students who have high-fail scores on the ACT. The pedagogical and assessment features of the program will follow the design of the Summer Program.

Tutorial Support in Writing and Reading: Our Academic Support Center (ASC), which houses the Writing Center, Academic Support Lab, Content Tutoring Centers, College ESL Program, and Testing Center, is a hub for supporting students academically during the critical periods of the freshman and sophomore years. The ASC has become a magnet, attracting students, faculty, and writing fellows who are interested in working collaboratively to help students function, and, indeed, excel in the academy. The Writing Center (WC) provides personal tutoring (including e-tutoring) for individuals and small groups. It supports all courses and programs at the College where writing is a key component. During the freshman year, writing support for English 110 is a major focus of the WC. The sophomore year focuses on supporting writing intensive courses, including English 120W, and the development of academic literacies. Also focusing on services that will assist students in their freshman and sophomore years, the Academic Support Lab (ASL) specializes in reading support services and study skills development. It conducts tutoring and study skills workshops, and in its facility there are networked computers, which students can use to do research, write and edit papers, and take practice reading tests. It also houses a library of print materials in reading, vocabulary, and test preparation for student use. The ASL is an indispensable undergraduate resource for students in the beginning stages of their college experience.

Expanded Evening and Weekend Support in Writing and Reading: Our Writing Center and Academic Support Lab will be open more hours in the evening so that students can take advantage of the tutorial services, instructional materials, and technology available. To ensure service delivery to all students, we will staff these facilities with non-teaching adjuncts who will serve as evening and weekend supervisors in the Fall and Spring semesters.

Content Tutoring Across Disciplines: Students need guidance and support, especially in their first two years, not only in program selection, but also in moving through the curriculum. Our Content Tutoring Centers will emphasize support for gateway courses and other courses that have a high failure rate. Presently, through the ASL and the Science Tutoring Center, we offer tutoring for courses in 12 different departments to support students in classes that have had low rates of successful completion, classes in which departments have indicated students need assistance, or classes with which students have requested help. In 2005, more than 600 students were tutored on an individual or small group basis, either in walk-in sessions or individually scheduled appointments. Working in concert with academic departments, the Academic Support Center plans to expand this service by targeting additional courses with low successful-completion rates, as well as higher-level courses within departments, thereby serving the “forgotten” sophomore population more effectively. Examples of such courses are: Economics 380, Introduction to Econometrics, Chemistry 251 and 252, Organic Chemistry I and II, Psychology 213W, Experimental Psychology, and Accounting 201, Intermediate Accounting.

CPE Support and Advisement: The ASC offers a number of interventions to prepare students for the CPE, ranging from an online tutorial to an experimental 3-hour, 3-credit course, Critical Reading and Writing. In addition, four-hour workshops are offered before each administration of the CPE for students who want an in-person introduction to the test. Before the October and March administrations, we plan to offer five sets of such workshops and before the January and June administrations, one set. For students who have previously failed the CPE or who feel that they will have considerable difficulty with it, the Center will offer 15-hour mini classes. In Spring 2005, 53 out of 62 (85.5%) students who retested passed the examination. We also ran a six-hour mini class to help students who only needed assistance with Task 2, quantitative reasoning, achieving a pass rate of 88.2% (15 out of 17 passed). In Summer 2005, 28 out of 30 (93.3%) who retested after the mini class passed the examination, and in Fall of 2005, 42 out of 44 (95.5%) who retested passed the examination. We also ran a small section of the Task 2 mini class for 2 students, both of whom passed the CPE. In January 2006, all 11 students (100%) taking the 15-hour mini class who retested passed the examination. Finally, for students who have failed the examination repeatedly, we offered a semester-long, 45-hour, non-credit intervention in 2005, achieving a CPE pass rate of 81% (13 out of 16 passed). Through the ASC and with the assistance of the CPE liaison, Undergraduate Scholastic Standards Committee, and the CUE Council, we will continue to coordinate the advisement and support services components of the CPE.

Rationale

· The freshman year is a vulnerable period in which academic adjustment can be difficult for

students.

· The academic profile of our undergraduate students informs our support programs.

· CPE issues must be addressed early, providing students all possible opportunities to be

successful.

· The time constraints of the January session necessitate that we work with students who have

the greatest likelihood of succeeding in an abbreviated program.

· Writing and reading support services are essential to student success. In the College

community, the broad spectrum of ESL, ranging from students who completed high school

abroad to orally fluent but writing deficient Generation 1.5 students who came to the U.S. as

adolescents, attest to the need for writing and reading support services. Especially in their

freshman year, students need an identifiable support center that addresses their specific

difficulties and convinces them that problems can be overcome and that success is possible.

· Our students’ schedules are as diverse as their ethnic backgrounds; therefore, we will make

services available evenings and weekends.

· Students, although certified in basic skills, need guidance and support in program selection,

in mastery of content material, and in movement through the curriculum.

· As students progress through the lower division, they must pass the University-mandated

CUNY Proficiency Exam (CPE); it is a graduation requirement. While Queens College

passing rates are in the 90% range, a sizeable number of students do not succeed and need

support services to ensure their success.

Coordination with Other College Programs

The Summer and January Programs will be coordinated with the SEEK Program and the Advising Center. Students exiting Summer and January programs will meet with an academic advisor to plan their semester courses. If ESL courses are required, students will be referred to a CESL Program advisor, who will help the student enroll in the appropriate ESL Reading and Writing courses. Other courses will be chosen with the assistance of the Advising Center to complete the student’s program. Students not needing to enroll in an ESL course will be familiarized with the various learning communities that are offered in the freshman year where seats will be reserved for students exiting the Summer Program.

We will coordinate all advisement services through the College’s CUE Council directed by the

Assistant Provost, and involving the Academic Support staff, the CPE liaison, and the Executive Director of the Undergraduate Scholastic Standards Committee.

The ASC will support and strengthen its professional collaboration with WAC and have joined forces to collaborate on faculty development initiatives. One very successful project, a workshop held in February on “Goals for Student Writing Across the Curriculum,” was attended by faculty teaching writing intensive courses as well as other faculty members, writing fellows, and administrators. Another workshop, “Taking Stock of Student Writing,” is scheduled for the end of the semester. Like student learning communities, we envision tutors, writing fellows, and faculty members forming teaching communities to strengthen writing support across disciplines. We will coordinate activities in the ASL with College ESL faculty who are teaching reading courses, so that individualized instructional plans can be designed for each student and ESL faculty can be a part of a broader pedagogical community.

The departments that our Content Tutoring Program supports include: Accounting, Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, Comparative Literature, Economics, English, Linguistics & Communication Disorders, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, and Sociology. We plan to expand this service by working with academic departments to target additional courses for support; e.g., courses with low successful-completion rates and higher-level courses. Working with WAC, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and faculty from the academic departments we support, the ASC will engage in faculty development initiatives and training programs for faculty, staff, and student tutors involved in academic support.

Recognizing that it is the responsibility of the entire faculty to help prepare students for the CPE, we will offer periodic training workshops for faculty and staff to familiarize them with the examination and to qualify them to teach CPE preparation classes. Coordinating efforts with the divisional deans, department chairpersons, and the CPE liaison, we will reach out to faculty from all disciplines to familiarize them with the examination. We will also emphasize the importance of incorporating instructional material and activities into courses to develop the competencies students need to pass the CPE. Through the ASC and with the assistance of the CPE liaison and the CUE Council at Queens, we will continue to coordinate the advisement and support services components of the CPE, reaching out to students on an ongoing basis, and making sure that CPE issues are addressed before students find themselves in jeopardy.

Goals

1. To improve students’ preparedness for and success in the general curriculum by developing academic literacy and critical thinking skills and providing content area support services.
2. To ensure that 90% of the ESL students participating in the Summer and January

Programs certify in Reading and Writing within two years.

3. To ensure that 75% of conditionally admitted students attending the Summer and January Programs certify in all basic skills by the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters.

4. To coordinate Summer and January Programs with regular semester course selection and

registration for students.

5. To disseminate to students the CPE requirements and the support services available.

6. To achieve an overall CPE pass rate of 90% and a 75% pass rate for those students

enrolled in CPE interventions.

Assessment Plan

We will examine the following variables and analyze the data collected to assess the effectiveness of our Academic Support Programs:

1. The number of students enrolled in Summer and January programs retained after the first and the second year.
2. The percentage of Summer and January program ESL students who certified in Reading

and Writing by the end of the second year.

3. The percentage of Summer and January program native speakers of English who certified

in the basic skills area after completing the program.

4. The retention rates of new freshmen and transfers.

5. The CPE pass rates of all students tested and students completing interventions.

6. The grades of students receiving tutorial support in content, core, and gateway courses.

7. The grades of students receiving tutorial support for writing courses: CESL, English

095.0, English 110, English 120W.

X Critical Junctures ↻ Faculty Development ↻ WAC ↻ Pilot Programs (Please check all that apply)

The Advising Center: Connection, Clarity, and Collaboration

Program Description

The Queens College Advising Center provides centralized academic advising services to all undergraduate students, including incoming and continuing students, through the clarification and navigation of degree requirements for timely receipt of the baccalaureate degree. Through the provision of updated and clearly-articulated information and with individualized assistance, professional academic advisors provide undergraduates with a clear understanding of the College’s general education requirements, major offerings, and the policies and procedures that impact their selection of programs and classes. To this end, advisors assist students with the development of an educational plan, which considers appropriate course sequence, major/minor selection(s), class standing, and level(s) of preparedness.

In working with the Queens College undergraduate population, we are positioned as two distinct but overlapping entities:

Continuing Student Services: Undergraduates may take advantage of the following advising services throughout their college careers: exploration of academic goals and the strategies by which to achieve them; explanation and review of overall general education degree requirements, including the Primary College Competencies (English 110, Mathematics, Foreign Language and Physical Education requirements), the Liberal Arts and Science Area Requirements (LASARs); other graduation requirements (including Writing Intensive Units and the CUNY Proficiency Examination); discussion of major and minor opportunities; information on academic policies, procedures, and deadlines; workshops on registration and semester program planning; long-range academic planning and graduation projection; sophomore milestones and initiatives; and referral to academic departments and student service offices. For the convenience of students with busy schedules, The Advising Center provides walk-in services, advising by appointment, evening availability three nights a week, and weekend advising through its collaboration with Weekend College.

New Student Services: From mid-May through August for the fall semester, and from December through January for the spring semester, The Advising Center coordinates advising and registration services for new freshmen and transfers. All entering freshmen must attend a Freshman Advising and Registration Workshop through which they learn about Queens College and are introduced to general education requirements, programs of study, and other academic offerings and opportunities—including the Freshman Year Initiative program, which provides incoming freshmen with a coherent first year in an academic community. Through the workshop, new students have the opportunity to interact with faculty, staff, and their peers as they develop an academic program and register with guidance from professional advisors. Transfer students have the opportunity to attend a Transfer Advising and Registration Workshop. These workshops, while not mandatory, are an important step in orienting the new transfer to the College, the transfer process, and the College’s policies, procedures, and academic requirements. Through an advising workshop, transfers have the opportunity to meet individually with a professional advisor, and faculty when available, to select their first-semester coursework.

During the fall 2005 semester, we saw 3,016 continuing students by appointment, through walk-in advising services, or through a special workshop. (Continuing student statistics for spring 2006 services will soon be determined; the number of students included in the “Number of Students Served” query at the end of this report includes the first two months of the semester.) Included within that number are the 197 students seen through the Sophomore Milestone programs and the 240 students seen through the Registration Workshops for 2nd Semester Freshmen; 1,244 entering transfer students were seen via advising workshops for fall 2005 and 887 for spring 2006; Over 1300 new freshmen were registered through the Center in fall 2005 and 126 for spring 2006.

Rationale

At the heart of its mission is the principle that academic advising is a valuable tool that enhances and supports a student’s entire undergraduate experience, and as such, the Advising Center is the mechanism through which 100% of all incoming freshmen and upwards of 73% of new transfers enter the institution. Post-matriculation, the Advising Center at Queens College seeks to help all students chart their own course through the College’s degree requirements, services, and educational opportunities. By working jointly with a professional advisor, students may tailor their educational experiences to make the most of their time and efforts at Queens. The presence of the Center and its many programs and initiatives acknowledges the role of academic advising in student success and retention, thereby supporting the institutional mission and vitality of the College.

Coordination with Other College Programs

With Academic Support:

• New CESL student advising and registration.
• Transition of CESL students into regular college coursework, including English 110, after the passing of the ACT tests.
• On-going recommendation to students re: Support Services (tutoring, reading, writing, math, science labs); maintenance of support service materials in our student-accessed information area.
• CPE: information provision, discussion, and outreach of this graduation requirement.

With Academic Departments:

• Coordination with faculty for registering students into special courses: i.e., English 110 and World Studies 101 dyad; the special technology-enhanced English 110 course.
• Transfer Class Reservation Program.
• Identification and monitoring of “gateway to the major” and bottlenecked courses that impede student progress in Gen Ed and in majors.
• Faculty-Assisted Transfer Workshops.
• Undeclared Major Intervention.

With Freshman Year Initiative:

· 100% of registration in FYI communities achieved through mandatory Freshman Advising and Registration Workshops in coordination with FYI.

• Trained FYI mentors assist with all Freshman Workshops.
• Connection of students early in their college careers with gateway to the major courses and faculty through specially-designed communities (e.g., pre-med, education, and business communities).
• FYI’s “reacting” classes.

With WISC/WAC and Director of Composition:

• English 110/Primary College Competency Intervention: pre-registration of identified students into this basic skills course and on-going progression analysis each semester.
• Director ex-officio on WISC/WAC Committee to keep clear line of communication open.
• Articulation, explanation, and justification of College’s composition requirement through new-student orientation and individual advising sessions.
• Creation of widely-distributed document identifying College’s writing intensive courses and, if applicable, the additional requirements they fulfill.
• Indication of required and optional writing intensive coursework through major departments in our Majors Handbook publication.

With Admissions Office:

• Unevaluated Transfer Credits Intervention.
• Assistance in the coordination/publicity of Transfer Credit Evaluation Program 4x year.
• Provision of transfer articulation agreements/information to incoming transfers; provision of pre-registration inventories of the QC Gen Ed and major requirements fulfilled for more precise first-semester advising and course registration.
• Mechanism for re-entering (including those matriculated under curricula prior to LASAR).

With Student Affairs and the Student Association:

• Recent creation of a Freshman Orientation Committee to design, coordinate, and implement the academic and student affairs portions of the freshman and family orientation activities.
• Collaborative effort to produce and run the New Freshman and Family Orientation Program. This effort also requires collaboration with Health Services, Financial Aid, Bursar, Security, Counseling and Advisement, and CLIQ.

With Office of Converging Technologies:

• Allowing new transfers to create their student computer and e-mail accounts during a transfer advising and registration workshop.
• Hands-on demonstration of College’s phone and on-line student information and registration systems.

With Special Population Offices (Elementary Education; LEAP, SEEK, ACE, WEEKEND COLLEGE):

• Sharing of human resources, including shared Weekend College and ACE advisors (trained and supervised by Advising Center director).
• Additionally, Elementary Education and LEAP representatives have been available and advising during transfer advising and registration workshops.

With Career Development and Internships:

• Through the new Sophomore Initiative, a collaboration with Career Development and Internships during Sophomore Advising Week with the Milestones Workshops.

With Honors/Special Programs:

• The Advising Center has historically and continues to offer special groups a forum for collaborative new-student advising programs, including Time 2000, Honors Experience, NIH-MARC, and Honors College.
• Advisors also assist these groups in reviewing the academic progression of their population (especially at graduation time).

With CUNY Baccalaureate Program:

• On-campus representation of this program via the Advising Center, which includes monitoring the program, providing information/application assistance to prospective students, assistance with identification of faculty mentors, and overall troubleshooting.

With Financial Aid:

• Advisors attendance at training and information sessions regarding TAP Audit.
• Advising presence at State Aid Alert Workshops for currently-enrolled students.
• Inclusion of State Aid Alert information in new student packets.
• Discussion of State Aid Alert information during new student presentations and family orientation.

Goals

The Advising Center has identified its goals and targets for academic 2006–2007, which it has entitled “Connection, Clarity, and Collaboration,” as it seeks to facilitate the following:

1. Projects and initiatives that will connect students to the institution.
2. On-going provision of a clear pathway to graduation and a clear articulation of College requirements and opportunities, regardless of the volume and magnitude of modification to degree requirements.
3. Partner with other departments and programs to maximize the resources of the institution to achieve these internal goals, as well as those of the College.

The specifics of our proposed initiatives include:

· Coordination with College Now Program via its orientation program to introduce current high school students to College, post-secondary expectations, and the notion of a liberal arts education.

• Creation of an Advising Consortium to include all vestiges of advising-related support and student service offices (initiated by SEEK Associate Director; co-chaired by Advising Center director working through the College’s CUE Council).
• Closer coordination of foreign transfer students and transfer credit evaluation with International Student Service Office.
• Expansion of the Sophomore Initiative Program to include:
• Outreach letter at beginning of semester from sophomore coordinator
• Majors expl