The question of how GW can improve services for students in need has dominated campus discussions for the past two years.
Student Association leaders channeled their advocacy into moving the health and counseling centers to the Marvin Center. Students, faculty and administrators have constructively sparred over how to improve sexual assault responses.
More students have been rushed to the hospital for heavy drinking. Parents at admitted students events peppered administrators with questions about GW’s mental health services after two freshman suicides this semester.
It’s become clear that going to college no longer just means learning how to schedule classes, get along with a roommate and earn a degree. Universities have a responsibility to both transition undergraduates to adulthood and integrate them into a community.
We see a great opportunity for GW to make a bigger impact on the health, safety and education of undergraduates: Create a year-long freshman experience that melds classroom time with residence hall life, and goes beyond what students learn in the three-day-long information dump that is Colonial Inauguration.
While its spirit is in the right place, CI isn’t an effective way to teach new Colonials everything they need to find success here. It’s a whirlwind of hurried info sessions, frenzied skits and forced friendships. The program feels like summer camp. It is so far removed from the real college experience that it lends no real insight into how students can find fulfillment at GW.
What our University needs – what is successfully practiced at numerous other schools, big and small, private and public, across the country – is a program run out of a designated office by a specialized staff that aims to bring every single incoming freshman into GW’s fold.
GW spends a pretty penny on student services – far above average among peer universities – but that means nothing if students don’t know how to access or use these resources.
Services like 4-RIDE, the University Counseling Center and the resources for sexual assault survivors can’t be communicated effectively at CI because the experience is so disconnected from the reality of student life. These support systems need to be introduced to students at the most relevant times: career services when internship season picks up, UCC during the stress of finals.
University Writing, a course every freshman must complete, goes a long way in preparing freshmen to tackle school work. It teaches them how to conduct research in GW’s libraries and how to pull together a lengthy essay – invaluable skills for the rest of a college career. But it isn’t built to teach freshmen how to succeed at GW outside of academics.
One of CI’s greatest advantages is its ability to connect freshmen with capable student mentors. Colonial Cabinet is proof that GW has enthusiastic campus leaders with a passion for taking students under their wings.
The University should capitalize on this enthusiasm throughout the freshman class’ first year. In partnership with administrators and campus life officers, Colonial Cabinet members could continue to host regular programming to cultivate a cohesive freshman experience.
Faculty should play a large part in shaping the program, and students each year should have a say in its messages and themes.
While GW has indicated it already sees this as a priority, the best laid plans often go awry – or are dismissed as ineffective by students. For instance, the Guide to Personal Success program, which paired freshmen with mentors who coached them on academics and student life, was nixed last year because of low participation.
The University emphasized in the decade-long strategic plan the creation of a “more unified and intellectually coherent undergraduate educational experience.” Faculty Senate members have been tasked with deciding what GW needs to add to its undergraduate curriculum, but it should not focus solely on academics.
Freshman transition programming is fairly common at other schools, which means GW has plenty of models for bettering its own freshman experience.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, has an entire office dedicated to freshman transition. Its goal is to integrate first-year students into university life, educate them about university policies and introduce them to social or extracurricular opportunities.
Freshmen at GW find community, most often, by joining student organizations, but access is usually granted only after some kind of tryout or the payment of a fee. The University should offer a program to every single incoming freshman regardless of talent or ability. For the small percentage of students who would feel babied by a program like this, many others would be grateful for no-holds-barred access to an infrastructure and a community.
It’s invaluable to feel like you’re a part of something. It’s what makes the college experience memorable and enjoyable. And this University must ensure that no student misses out on the opportunity.
