September 25, 2009
at Northern Illinois University
DeKalb Campus
For more information:
815-753-1535
fyconference@niu.edu
Keynote speaker:
Dr. John N. Gardner
John N. Gardner is an educator, university professor and administrator, author, editor, public speaker, consultant, change agent, student retention specialist, and first-year students’ advocate. He is best known as the initiator and scholar of an international reform movement in higher education to call attention to and improve what he has coined “The First-Year Experience.”
Gardner serves as the Executive Director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College. The Center, based in Brevard, N.C., was founded by John and his wife, Dr. Betsy O. Barefoot, in October 1999. The Center works with colleges and universities to strengthen their resolve and to undertake assessment of the entire first college year experience as a means to improve student learning and retention. The Center’s work focuses on implementing a set of aspirational standards for excellence in the first year to be used both for the design of the first year and as a measurement process for effecting educational improvements. These principles are known as “Foundational Dimensions of Excellence®.” Since its inception, the Center has received approximately $7,500,000 in support from its philanthropic partners.
John is also the Senior Fellow of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and Distinguished Professor emeritus of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. The National Resource Center, founded by Gardner in 1986, organizes the popular and influential conferences on The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and also disseminates information through an extensive series of scholarly publications, videos, international conferences, workshops, seminars, and teleconferences. He served as Executive Director of both the first-year seminar course, University 101; at the University of South Carolina from 1974-1999; and the National Resource Center from 1986-1999.
Gardner began his full-time faculty career at USC Columbia in 1970. He taught courses in American and South Carolina history, interpersonal communications for librarians, public speaking, higher education administration, and other special topics. He also regularly taught the first-year seminar, University 101, and developed and taught University 401, Senior Capstone Experience (as a sequel to University 101, only for departing students). This remains one of his legacies to the University of South Carolina about which he is most satisfied in terms of the help it offers students.
John is the recipient of nine honorary doctoral degrees recognizing him for his contributions to American higher education. In 1986, he was selected by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) as one of 20 faculty in the U. S. who have made outstanding leadership contributions to their institutions and/or American higher education. In 1996, he was recognized by the Council of Independent Colleges with its Academic Leadership Award for exemplary contributions to American higher education.
Gardner’s work has been favorably reviewed in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Times of London, U.S. News and World Report, Money magazine, and numerous other publications. A 1998 issue of Change cited him as one of approximately 80 people who were seen as the "past, present, and future leaders of higher education," and The Chronicle of Higher Education, drawing on a survey of 11,000 respondents, included him as one of eleven “agenda setters.”
He has been honored by several prominent student affairs organizations. The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) named him as one of the “top ten professionals who have most influenced Student Affairs practitioners” in 1998, and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) recognized him with its highest honor—the Lifetime Achievement Award—in 2002. In 1999, he received the Virginia N. Gordon Award for Excellence in the Field of Advising from the National Academic Advising Association.
Gardner is also the recipient of the University of South Carolina’s highest award for teaching excellence, the AMOCO Award for Outstanding Teaching (1975). In 1999, he was the recipient of a university award created and named in his honor, "The John N. Gardner Inspirational Faculty Award."
Gardner is the author or co-author of numerous monographs, texts, and books, including “The Freshman Year Experience” (1989), “Achieving and Sustaining Institutional Excellence for the First Year of College” (2005), and “Step by Step to College and Career Success” (2010).
Plenary speaker:
Dr. Betsy Barefoot
Betsy Barefoot serves as Co-Director and Senior Scholar for the Policy Center on the First Year of College in Brevard, North Carolina. Dr. Barefoot is directly involved in the development of instruments and strategies to evaluate and improve the first college year. In addition, she conducts seminars on the first-year experience across the United States and in other countries and assists other colleges and universities in implementing and evaluating first-year programs.
Prior to assuming this position in 1999, Dr. Barefoot served for 11 years as Co-Director for Research and Publications in the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina. In this position, she engaged in ongoing research on first-year programming in American higher education and co-edited a number of publications including the Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, the First-Year Experience Newsletter, and a series of single-topic monographs. While at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Barefoot also served as a clinical faculty member in the University of South Carolina's College of Education and taught graduate courses in Principles of College Teaching, Contemporary Trends and Issues in Higher Education, a special topics seminar on The First-Year Experience, as well as the University 101 first-year seminar.
Dr. Barefoot has also authored and co-authored a number of publications including 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.