December 16, 2010

Fall 2010 UAA snapshot of serving students

For the October 2010 UAA directors meeting, Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor asked directors to share some program updates. The points below are edited from those updates. It’s intended to be a quick snapshot of some of the ways Undergraduate Academic Affairs serves students.

Connecting undergraduates to service and leadership

The Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center reports that fall quarter is the largest service-learning quarter ever with more than 900 students committed to service through 29 courses.

October 23-24 the Dream Project hosted about 260 dream scholars (high school partners) for the Dream Project Scholarship Kickoff. During this five-hour gathering, UW undergraduate mentors helped high school students begin their search for the financial aid for college.

November 13-14 brought hundreds of dream scholars to campus for the annual Scholarship Weekend. Volunteers from around the UW joined Dream Project mentors to help high school students with their college admissions essays and applications.

This September, the Pipeline Project began a year-long pilot partnership with Neah Bay Elementary School entitled Telling Your Story. A team of eight UW undergraduates will work with two 5th grade classrooms throughout this year with exchanges and Skype chats. Read the blog.

Ensuring effective learning environments

First day of fall quarter had the second-largest-ever number of students arriving at Classroom Support Services to pick up equipment funded by the Student Technology Fee and the student Services and Activities Fee. Students continue to flock to this program in record numbers: there are upwards of 25% yearly growth in students served.

Major classroom improvements completed for the start of fall quarter: Hitchcock 132 was completely remodeled and now brings the total number of classrooms equipped with videoconferencing capabilities to 7 rooms; PACCAR Hall with 14 general use classrooms opened with only a few glitches; over the past 12 months Classrooms Support Services staff replaced more than 60 data projectors and more than 70 new computer workstations/laptops have been installed for teaching faculty in classrooms. The audio-visual system in Kane 130 has been completely replaced.

Supporting academic excellence

Academic Support Programs is expanding the range of subjects offered within our Academic Achievement Courses. This winter Academic Support Programs will offer a course on immigration and education, genetic engineering, and race, class and gender in sports media.

The Center for Learning and Undergraduate Enrichment (CLUE) expanded CLUE in the Halls to include both chemistry and writing center services. This is the third year of expanding a partnership with First Year Programs and Residential FIGs and Housing and Food Services.

Undergraduate Advising developed an outreach plan for pre-major undergraduates not affiliated with EOP or pre-engineering informing them of advising services. Freshmen, for example, receive a welcome and introduction to advising and a “care package” letter. Sophomores receive a letter from Ed encouraging them to see us or department advisers. Students on warning and probation are required to see an adviser with the intention of getting them on the right track sooner.

Creating community among new students

First Year Programs saw record numbers of students at Dawg Daze events this year including 4000+ at Freshmen Kickoff, 1000+ at Quad Flicks, 2000 at the Late Night Breakfast, and 3800+ at Late Night at Fred Meyer.