The profile of students entering higher education is ever-changing, deeming it critical to understand the impact on institutions and teaching methods that foster student learning across perspectives. This article will highlight the need for advancing first-year student curriculum through teaching socially just seminars. Specifically, the article…

Ideal for faculty and administrators looking to blend business education and the liberal arts, this toolkit combines exemplary syllabi from 26 leading institutions with step-by-step strategies to advocate successfully for curricular innovation. Conceived with comprehensiveness in mind, these resources cover both inspiration and implementation for…

This book's 10 chapters offer support and information on effective training of instructors of first-year college seminars. The included chapters are: (1) "Instructor Training: Rationale, Results, and Content Basics" (Joseph B. Cuseo); (2) "Teaching and Today's Changing First-Year Students" (M. Lee Upcraft and Pamela S. Stephens); (3) "What We Know…

A North Dakota State University study found that during a required first-year seminar, students whose course instructors served as their academic advisors voluntarily attended advising sessions significantly more often than did students whose advisors were not their course teachers. Areas for further research and implications for advising programs…

This monograph explores the ways in which first-year college students can benefit from writing and offers concrete, practical suggestions for implementing writing in freshman seminar courses. Chapter 1, "Why Use Writing in a Freshman Seminar?" builds on the notion that writing is a process of discovery. Chapter 2, "Write it More Than Once: The…

This report provides a conceptual framework for guiding decisions regarding the administrative delivery and course content of the freshman orientation seminar. The proposed framework relies heavily on empirical evidence generated by college-level research in the areas of student retention, student learning and academic achievement, and student…

To help schools recruit and retain their students without lowering academic standards, a full semester freshman seminar designed to train new college students in the skills they will need is proposed. The importance of this approach in light of the growing competition among colleges and universities to attract students is discussed. Increased…

The purpose of this monograph is to update the research and general information that has been generated about undecided students in the past decade and to offer some practical perspectives on how to administer, advise, and counsel such students. Thirteen chapters include: (1) "A Profile of Undecided College Students" (Willard C.…

This monograph contains 14 papers on all aspects of college and university student and family orientation programs. The papers are: (1) "Orienting Today's Students" by M. Lee Upcraft; (2) "Theoretical Perspectives on Orientation" by Michael Dannells; (3) "Trends and Issues in Orientation Programs" by Gerry Strumpf and…

Guidelines to enhancing the freshman year experience are presented in the following chapters: (1) "A Comprehensive Approach to Enhancing Freshman Success" (M. Lee Upcraft, John N. Gardner); (2) "Who Are Today's Freshmen?" (Arthur Levine); (3) "A Historical Look at the Freshman Year Experience" (John Orr Dwyer); (4) "Understanding Student…