Spring Break
Student success addressed at Faculty Senate
Success center aims at helping at-risk students improve academic goals
Sarah Ruholl/Assistant Verge Editor
Issue date: 2/18/09 Section: News
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The main purposes of the grant, awarded in fall 2006, were to add onto Ninth Street Hall and to develop and expand programs for student success and retention.
"If you've had the opportunity to go down Ninth Street in the last few months, you'll see an addition to Ninth Street is quickly rising, and it is quickly rising, that will house the new Student Success Center," said Cindy Boyer, assistant director of the center.
Boyer discussed this and the successes of the center's different programs at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday afternoon in Booth Library.
"The meat and potatoes is to develop programs and services directed toward student success and retention," Boyer said.
One program, EIU 2919: Strategies for Academic Success, has seen particularly impressive results. The class is required for students placed on academic warning.
"We're looking for students to create a sense of responsibility for their own education," Boyer said.
Before it began in the fall of 2007, only 34 percent of students placed on academic warning ever returned to good standing.
Now, 51 percent of students return to good standing the semester they are enrolled in the course. By the semester after completing the course, 69 percent have returned to good standing.
When writing the grant, the center's goal was to get the percentage up to 60 by 2011. This has already been surpassed.
John Pommier, Faculty Senate chair and a member of the center's advisory committee, said the progress the center has seen so far is impressive and sets Eastern up to be a leader.
Advisors, professors, the Office of Minority Affairs or the writing center can refer students to the center. Students can also choose to come in on their own.
"At the Student Success Center last year, we saw over 1,700 students come in for consultation," Boyer said.
The center has an online home for students who want a few guidelines for academic success.
"Students who don't particularly want to come in and talk to me can do it from their dorm," she said.
Karla Sanders, the director of the Center for Academic Support & Achievement, spoke to the senate about how the changes to the Electronic Writing Portfolio worked last semester.
Of the 2,258 submissions received last semester, 843 were from seniors, more than one-third of the total submissions.
"We're hoping to ratchet those numbers down so we'll have a higher percentage of lower classes and fewer seniors submitting," Sanders said.
Professors are still concerned with some of the workings of the EWP.
Ruth Hoberman, an English professor and senate member, was concerned about the scoring rubric being too closely related to the grading rubric.
She said her initial reaction is to change the grade to the corresponding number, but a two is considered at-risk.
Hoberman does not believe a C paper should be considered at-risk and does not want students to see it as below average.
Sarah Ruholl can be reached at 581-7942 or at seruholl2@eiu.edu.
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