Pellissippi State to participate in national study on first-year students

How does a typical 17- or 18-year-old survive the first year of life on a college campus?

A national research project is under way to find out, and Pellissippi State will play an important role in the process.

Pellissippi State is one of 10 “Founding Institutions” across the country that will help shape a national model for two-year institutions to develop and refine their approach in helping freshmen get through their first year of college.

The Policy Center for the First Year of College is studying ways to enhance the learning and retention of students who are starting the college experience. The center’s Foundations of Excellence project originated two and one-half years ago with four-year institutions across the country and will now be developed for two-year colleges.

Pellissippi State was the only Tennessee community college out of 87 two-year colleges that participated in the first phase of the project earlier this year. The initial phase involved developing ideas for improving new students’ experiences and drafting a set of standards for excellence in a variety of areas.

Center officials say Pellissippi State now will be involved in “an in-depth yearlong process of studying the new student experience.” This process will include using performance indicators, auditing current practices and developing an action plan that documents effective practices and recommends improvements.

Pellissippi State officials will join with representatives of other Founding Institutions August 4-5 in Asheville, North Carolina, to begin work on this phase of the project.

Receiving the Founding Institution designation “makes the coming year potentially the most interesting one in our professional careers,” said Jim Bruns, vice president of Academic and Student Affairs. “We will reflect on what excellence means and what it looks like, work with Policy Center experts, identify measures of performance and develop our model for excellence in the first year.”

The Policy Center on the First Year of College, which opened in October 1999, is based at Brevard College in North Carolina. The center’s basic mission is to develop ways to improve the first college year, looking especially at learning outcomes and the success of first-year students.

The Policy Center is headed by John N. Gardner, former director of the University of South Carolina’s National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. The two groups cooperate on issues relating to the success of first-year college students.

The Policy Center receives financing from the Lumina Foundation for Education. Earlier versions of this work were financed by The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Lumina Foundation.

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In addition to Pellissippi State, the other two-year Founding Institutions for the national study of the first-year college experience are Kennebec Valley Community College (Maine), Longview Community College (Missouri), Middlesex Community College (Connecticut), Montgomery County Community College (Pennsylvania), Oakton Community College (Illinois), San Jacinto College-South (Texas), Spokane Falls Community College (Washington), University of Wisconsin Colleges and Virginia Highlands Community College.

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In past years, six Tennessee schools assisted in developing the Policy Center’s recommendations for four-year colleges—Middle Tennessee State University, Union University, Lane College, Cumberland University, Lee University and Maryville College. Maryville College was a Founding Institution for the four-year process.

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Community Relations Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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