Introduction/Overview

Challenges

Problems

Learning-Centered Tasks

Summary/Description

Analysis/Recommendations

Conclusion

This section will examine the academic and student support services and programs providing preparation and remediation and promoting the retention and academic success of Cal Poly Pomona students, attempting to create an integrated curricular and co-curricular environment responsive to our diverse students' interests and needs These programs and services are especially important as we seek to respond to the challenges and problems--demographic and academic, economic and technological, professional and institutional--facing the university at this time.

I. Challenges

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The projected surge in student enrollment from Tidal Wave Two, taxing the resources of Cal Poly Pomona and the CSU, and continuing problems of academic under-preparation and the need for remediation of a majority of entering students.

A "dramatic demographic transformation" of the student population of Cal Poly Pomona and the CSU, coming to reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of California, including greater numbers of women, non-traditional, and first-generation university students (Cornerstones, 26).

The crisis of academic quality and standards of performance in California K-12 schools, and projected need for 250,000 new teachers over the next ten years, and responsibility of the CSU, which trains over 60% of California K-12 teachers, to reach out to K-12 schools, to help prepare students for university work and to produce more and better teachers.

The changing nature of the California workforce and economy, and special responsibility of Cal Poly Pomona and the CSU to prepare students with the advanced knowledge, skills, and understanding for lifelong learning, productive work, and effective participation in the information economy and diverse society of the 21st century.

The fiscal expense and demographic pressures associated with high levels of student under-preparation and remediation, exerting pressure on academic programs and budgets, subverting the hopes and delaying the matriculation of students, reducing the productivity and lowering morale.

The threat to academic standards posed by student under-preparation and disengagement, in collusion with our ideal of access and conflict with the complementary quality, exacerbated by large classes and programs in the face of Tidal Wave Two, and by our new model of consumer service and productivity, challenging our integrity as an institution and identity as educators.

The deepening disillusionment, compounded by other crises, of an aging and Anglo tenured faculty, and growing distance from their multicultural and non-traditional students, undermining the learning community they know they both need.

The continuing insularity of the university, disconnected from neighboring communities and schools, at a time of growing need and increasing calls for collaborative outreach.

Responding to these challenges and problems, Cal Poly Pomona may be tested by the central tasks of a learning-centered university:

Adopting a focus on learning at all levels of institutional operation and educational practice, making the process and progress of student learning the clear, consequential core value and commitment of the institution.

Renewing a corollary commitment to the student, declaring and demonstrating that determining and adddressing students' educational needs, and advancing student learning and development, are the central activities of university faculty and staff, improving support services such as academic advising and mentoring and providing programs such as learning communities.

I. Areas of focus/concern in supporting student learning and development.

1. Student preparation and remediation:

a. Problems of high numbers of remediation in CSU/CPP. Recent statistics.

b. E.O. 665. CSU/Trustee goals for 2007.

c. CPP implementation of E.O. 665. First-year results/statistics.

d. CPP K-12 outreach efforts to enhance preparation, reduce remediation.

e. CPP/SEIS grant for K-12 outreach effort.

f. CPP remedial programs in English and Math. Strengths, weaknesses.

g. Issues of purpose/method in remediation. Corrective vs. developmental.

h. Relation of remediation to diversity/ethnicity, CSU goals of access/quality.

2. Student retention and success:

a. Problems of retention at CPP, vs. CSU/comparable schools. IRP statistics.

b. Role of first year for retention/success. Need for programs/services.

c. Suzuki/Carmona retention initiative. Goals of Educational Equity Board.

d. Relation of remediation to diversity/ethnicity, CSU goals of access/quality.

II. Programs/services for student preparation/remediation and retention/success.

1. Student academic/support and remedial/developmental services/programs:

a. Enrollment/admissions.

b. Freshmen and transfer orientation.

c. Academic advising. Academic Advising Council. New at-risk advising.

d. Academic mentoring and student support groups.

e. EOP services/programs. Summer Bridge program.

f. Upward Bound, Trio Grants, McNair programs.

g. College-based programs. MEP, SEES, CARES. New CLASS Advising Center.

h. Learning Resource Center.

i. New University Writing/Learning Center.

2. Curricular/co-curricular activities/programs and learning environment:

a. Student clubs and organizations.

b. ASI activities/programs.

c. Cultural centers. The Center, Pride Center.

d. Cross-Cultural Retreat.

e. Theme quarters. Cultural/international.

1. Student preparation and remediation:

a. Need to continue to reduce remediation at CPP. Costs, faculty concerns.

b. Need to continue to enforce E.O. 665 fairly, clearly. .Student concerns.

c. Need to support CPP K-12 outreach efforts. Problems, solutions.

d. Need to support CPP remedial English/Math programs. Problems, solutions; issues. Promote developmental remediation?

e. Need to support Astin on remediation, CSU goals, access/quality/diversity.

2. Student retention and success:

a. Need to improve retention at CPP. Problems, solutions.

b. Need to support IRP information/communication on retention/success.

c. Need to develop First/Freshman Year Program/Experience at CPP. Use CPP 1998 proposal (B. Charles, L. Turk) and Long Beach/other models.

d. Need to support activities/proposals of Educational Equity Board.

e. Need to support services/programs in #1 and 2 below.

f. Need to support Rendon on retention, CSU goals, access/quality/diversity.

II. Programs/services for student preparation/remediation and retention/success.

1. Student academic/support and remedial/developmental services/programs:

a. Need to improve CPP enrollment/admissions timeline/procedures.

b. Need to expand freshmen and transfer orientation. Promote greater faculty involvement. Connect to support services and academic departments.

c. Need to improve academic advising as a central university initiative. Research on importance of advising, flaws in current practices. Promote faculty involvement in academic and at-risk advising. Support activities/proposals of Academic Advising Council. Support faculty development in developmental academic advising. Support innovations such as CLASS Advising Center.Support recognition/rewards for academic advising. RTP/FMI. Promote Internet (Kellner) for academic advising/information.

d. Need to support/expand academic mentoring and student support groups.

e. Need to support EOP services/programs, and Summer Bridge program.Collaborate with/relate to faculty and academic departments.

f. Need to support Upward Bound, Trio Grants, McNair programs.

g. Need to support college-based programs. MEP, SEES, CARES.

h. Need to support Learning Resource Center. Problems of LRC and recommendations of Joint Review Report. Coordinate/collaborate with new University Writing/Learning Center. Provide resources commensurate with LRC goals/services.

i. Need to support/promote new University Writing/Learning Center. Need for writing center at CPP. Student writing needs, problems. Coordinate/collaborate with LRC, EOP, college-based programs. Coordinate/collaborate with Faculty Center for Professional Development, and Writing across the Disciplines workshops.

2. Curricular/co-curricular activities/programs and learning environment:

a. Need to support student clubs and organizations, faculty participation.

b. Need to support ASI activities/programs, ccordinate w/curriculum.

c. Need to support the multicultural centers, the Center, and Pride Center.

d. Need to support the Cross-Cultural Retreat, coordinate w/curriculum.

e. Need to support theme quarters, cultural/international, coordinate with curriculum and other faculty and student activities/programs

Conclusion

Like other campuses of the CSU, Cal Poly Pomona must continue to provide quality education while offering access to the growing and more diverse student population seeking higher education, despite limited public resources and state support. The university and CSU system must work to develop strategies for serving the students of Tidal Wave Two, maintaining the core commitment of Cornerstones (2).

Cal Poly Pomona must continue to articulate and demonstrate an inclusive ideal of diversity, embedded in the curriculum and co-curriculum and academic and student support services of the university, responsive to the diverse backgrounds, interests, and needs of its students and society. It must work within limitations to create an integrated campus curricular/co-curricular learning environment and developmental student academic support programs.

Responding to the need for highly skilled graduates in applied and professional fields, the university must educate a more competent and thoughtful citizenry, harmonizing the claims of technical training and liberal education, striving to educate the whole person, defining the knowledge and skills not only for success but for a fulfilled and reflective life.

Behind the above there lies the deeper need for Cal Poly Pomona to redefine its values as a learning-centered culture that:

1. Offers a learning community for our diverse student body and validation of their different accomplishments, interests, and needs (Rendon).

2. Promotes collaboration between colleagues, departments, and colleges, and the divisions of Academic and Student Affairs, to support an integrated learning environment promoting the development and success of our students (Banta and Kuh, Pascarella and Terenzini); and collaborative outreach to our surrounding communities and schools.

3. Supports the collaborative scholarship and reflective practice of teaching, based on and producing a growing body of research, principles, and best practices, reflecting our commitment to learning and to the development of students.

4. Redefines academic excellence, and the relations between access and quality, in relation to our changing, diverse student body, our concerns over standards, and commitment to democratic educational ideals (Astin), defining our mission as educators cultivating the ideals of "democratic intelligence" and an informed and thoughtful citizenry (Knefelkamp), serving a diverse, multicultural society and a university such as Cal Poly Pomona, establishing the basis for more effective articulation, implementation, and assessment of learning-centered goals.