One of the goals of Wesleyan’s Title III grant was to facilitate academic success by developing key programs through the Student Support Center. Over the five year grant period programs that were developed helped our students realize academic success.
A centerpiece program of Activity II is Supplemental Instruction (SI), which aims to assist students in traditionally difficult courses (courses with high rates of D’s, F’s, and W’s) by placing a trained SI Leader in a given course to offer support, including three weekly review sessions to help students integrate content with study skills. During the life of the grant this program has consistently shown great success and this year was no exception with over 91% of those attending five or more sessions achieving a grade of “C” or better. The number of A,B,C grades over D,F,W grades supports the value of this program and its effectiveness in assisting students increase their academic performance in historically difficult courses.
WesBridge, a program designed to help conditionally admitted students has evolved from a voluntary to a mandatory program over the past five years and has gone from one section to two so we might address the needs of athletes. Participating students are monitored closely and are expected to maintain close contact with the program coordinator. Attendance at an early orientation prior to regular Freshman Orientation; regular attendance at SI sessions; weekly updates and mandatory monthly meetings with the Coordinator; participation in workshops and activities sponsored by SSC; and tutoring in troublesome subject areas are part of the program requirements. Assessment of the program shows that students are more successful in the voluntary program than the mandatory one and the factor credited with this difference is motivation. Returning the program to voluntary status in academic year 2006-07 could lead to marked improvements in student performance and overall academic success. Students meeting program criteria but not part of the program will be closely monitored by staff.
The Student Support Center offers programs designed to help students succeed in college; they include pre-major advising by professional staff, at-risk programs, disabilities accommodations, SI, WesBridge and academic enrichment workshops. All of the programs use as their base the Center Mission Statement: To aid the college community in helping students develop and achieve their educational goals through coordinated support activities. By using this mission for our programming we aid students in making effective and informed choices that will promote their well-being and prepare them for life beyond the college experience.
As the needs of the students change, we continue to develop and pilot new retention strategies. The grant provided us the opportunity to pilot programs that provide support in academic areas and from these programs we will continue to refine and develop strategies aimed at student academic success. The College will study recommendations from the Student Support Center in the spring for additional retention strategies based on experience gained from the Title III programs and continued support for student academic success.