The last time John N. Gardner visited the NIU campus in 1987, he came on a mission.
Gardner introduced faculty, staff and administrators to the emerging concept of the “first-year experience,” a reform movement designed to support the success of first-year students, which began in the 1970s under his leadership as a faculty member at the University of South Carolina.
That movement now is international in scope, with Gardner, president of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education based in North Carolina, still leading the way.
Gardner returns to NIU Friday, Sept. 25, to offer the keynote address at the second Midwest drive-in first-year experience conference, “Strengthening the First College Year: Embracing Collaborative Partnerships.”
Betsy O. Barefoot, vice president of the Gardner Institute and co-director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College, will provide the opening plenary address.
All who work with first-year students – in classrooms, residence halls, advising offices and support services – are encouraged to attend. Registration information can be found at www.fyconference.niu.edu. The “early bird” conference fee expires after Thursday, Sept. 10, although online registrations will be accepted until Monday, Sept. 21.
“John Gardner and Betsy Barefoot are the ‘gold standard’ in terms of their advocacy for the first-year experience,” said Denise Rode, NIU’s director of Orientation and First-Year Experience. “Many of us in this field owe our understanding of first-year students and knowledge of best practices in the first year to Drs. Gardner and Barefoot. They have helped to transform the institutional culture for first-year students on hundreds of college campuses internationally.”
More than 200 conference participants are expected for the day-long event, which also features concurrent sessions focused on topics such as academic advising for first-year students, early intervention initiatives for at-risk students, first-year curriculum and health issues for first-year students.
The conference is a collaborative partnership between NIU, Rock Valley College, Elgin Community College, College of Lake County, Aurora University and Indiana Wesleyan University.
Gardner is an educator, university professor and administrator, author, editor, public speaker, consultant, change agent, student retention specialist, first-year students’ advocate and initiator and scholar of the American first-year and senior-year reform movements.
His many publications include a series of best-selling first-year seminar textbooks, and his accolades and honors come from sources as diverse as the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), the New York Times and Change magazine.
Barefoot is a distinguished scholar of the first-year experience in her own right. In her work at the institute, she is directly involved in the development of instruments and strategies to evaluate and improve the first college year.
A prolific author and editor, Barefoot has written or co-written the 2005 Jossey-Bass books, “Achieving and Sustaining Institutional Excellence for the First Year of College,” and “Challenging and Supporting the First-Year Student: A Handbook for the First Year of College.” She also has edited “The First Year and Beyond: Rethinking the Challenge of Collegiate Transition,” a 2008 publication of New Directions for Higher Education.
When Gardner returns to NIU this fall, he will find a campus that has taken his 1987 message to heart.
Among the NIU first-year initiatives that have evolved in the past 20 years is UNIV 101/201. These courses help students make a successful academic transition, learn about university resources and become involved in the NIU community.
This fall, 1,762 first-year students – representing 58% of the freshman class – and 124 transfer students are enrolled in 91 sections taught by 83 instructors who are assisted in the classroom by 73 Peer Instructors (upperclass student volunteers).
The conference coincides with NIU’s participation in Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year. NIU is one of more than 150 higher education institutions to engage in Foundations of Excellence, the signature work of the Policy Center.
Under the auspices of Gardner and staff of the Policy Center on the First Year of College, more than 100 members of the NIU community are involved in this self-study and improvement process which will result in recommendations to develop a comprehensive, cohesive first-year experience.
Recommendations for improvement and an action plan are expected in 2010.