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I. PERFORMANCE REPORT
March 1, 2000 - February 28, 2001

II. PROJECT SUMMARY
This funding period, the instructional and student support activities of the General University Academic Center (GUAC) continue to focus on the issues of student retention, the improvement of academic advisement, and THEA coordination and monitoring. Retention and academic advisement continue to be priorities for the University. Efforts to date, have centered on the delivery of instructional and student support programs and services offered through the General University Academic Center (GUAC). These programmatic activities and initiatives include: a comprehensive new student Orientation Program, a student success course for first-year students, the Community Service Assistance Program (CSAP) that provides early internships for first-year students via community-based agencies and businesses, the first-year students' peer council, monitored class attendance in Sociology 211, MARC (Managing Academic Rigor Competently), a special series of study strategies activities for students on academic probation, and intrusive Academic Advisement. Intrusive advisement denotes a proactive concern for the academic and personal welfare of advisees whereby advisors do not wait to be "invited" into their advisees' lives.

The following is a description of the program objectives of this activity and a narrative highlighting Unit progress in meeting its activity objectives during this reporting period.

III. PROJECT STATUS

Objective 1
Institutionalize a comprehensive program for first-year students and all THEA Responsible students that increase their potential for academic success and thereby the likelihood of their remaining in college through their sophomore year.

Accomplishments
All of the program offerings in the General University Academic Center are designed to assist students in making a smooth transition into the Texas Southern University learning community and to successfully complete THEA requirements. These program offerings include such activities as: Intrusive Academic Advisement, Orientation/Jump Start Your Future, Sociology 211 (Social Adjustment to College), GUAC Interdisciplinary Academic Support Laboratory, THEA Coordination, and Retention Initiatives such as the Community Service Assistance Program (CSAP), Second Mile, Monitored Class Attendance, the Bridge Builders' Peer Tutoring Program, and MARC (Managing Academic Rigor Confidently).

All GUAC program initiatives have been evaluated to insure they are based on "best practices" relative to first-year experience programs and cutting edge research found in retention literature. The following matrix illustrates this alignment.

* Source: Resource Seminar: New strategies for improving student success and retention in the first college year. Presenters: Dr. John N. Gardner & Dr. Betsy O. Barefoot. Houston, Texas, February 17, 2001.

Intrusive Academic Advisement

There are currently nine Academic Advisors assigned to the General University Academic Center. Four of the nine Advisors are funded through this grant.

All students entering Texas Southern University are assigned to an Academic Advisor and remain with this Advisor until core and THEA requirements have been met. Evidence of the continued importance of academic advising provided by the Advisors in the General University Academic Center is documented by registration and advisement data for Fall 2000 and Spring 2001. During this period, GUAC Advisors advised and enrolled approximately 40% of the total student population.

Orientation/JumpStart

The General University Academic Center coordinates a comprehensive and substantive New Student Orientation program. "JumpStart Your Future" is a week of transitional activities ending with course placement and selection for all new first-year students. New transfer students are also served during this period. One overriding goal of orientation is to introduce new students to the Texas Southern University learning environment, as well as, to initiate them into the expectations and challenges associated with higher education. More than 1500 new students participated in JumpStart this academic year.

Beginning with the Summer 2001 term, a new orientation initiative, "EarlyStart," will be implemented to provide an opportunity for newly admitted students to participate in a 3-day intensive summer orientation program. It is anticipated that the provision of a summer program will decrease the large numbers of students who typically enroll in the fall, thereby enabling Advisors to spend more time with each student during his/her initial registration and transitional activities.

Sociology 211

The required first-year orientation course, Sociology 211, Social Adjustment to College, is coordinated through GUAC with Academic Advisors and volunteer facilitators teaching the more than 50 sections offered during the 2000-2001 academic year. During the previous grant period, the "learning-to- learn approach" was adopted for the course using text materials by Marcia Heilman. However, course evaluations for 1999-2000 revealed that neither students nor the facilitators were pleased with this approach. Thus, for the Fall 2000 semester, Becoming a Master Student by Dave Ellis was used. A thorough text evaluation process will be completed by the end of this semester and a program will be selected to meet the needs of our students. Central to this new delivery system will be courses and study strategies materials delivered through Blackboard online course development software. Staff persons began Blackboard training sessions at the beginning of the spring semester.

Interdisciplinary Laboratory

The GUAC Interdisciplinary Laboratory is a computerized laboratory that also incorporates small group and individual tutoring services for students who have failed one or more portions of THEA. Assistance is provided in reading, writing, and mathematics preparation for THEA. All students who have taken the THEA and failed one or more sections are required to enroll in GUAC 101 (Interdisciplinary Lab). The course is a zero hour based course and thus students pay no fee for the lab. However, students must attend lab or risk being withdrawn from school due to noncompliance with THEA "continuous remediation" policies.

As in the previous grant year, experienced facilitators who formerly taught in the Developmental Studies program were assigned to the GUAC laboratory as full-time THEA resource people. These facilitators conduct individual and group tutoring sessions and individual folders are kept on every student accessing this assistance.

Beginning with the Spring 2001 semester, the laboratory staff had students to select specific times and days for THEA assistance and issued midterm grades based on progress made and attendance. This change has resulted in a measurable increase in the number of students who regularly attend the lab as required by state policy.

Forensics

The University's Forensics Program has been able to maintain itself as an integral part of the University's effort to train and develop students in such a way that they will be able to compete successfully, at the highest levels. To provide a comprehensive, challenging and integrated general education program of courses, practice, and other experiences that give students a critical foundation of skills and competencies.

Community Service Assistance Project

The Community Service Assistance Project (CSAP) continues to give students an early opportunity to experience working in the career areas of their choice. Students meet weekly and give a minimum of twenty-five (25) clock hours of volunteer community service, over the semester keep a journal of their volunteer experiences, and read Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. They practice the seven principles while in their assigned community sites. They also keep a portfolio to document their experiences and growth as effective people. A new Coordinator has expanded the program to include more Business Partners who will also serve as mentors. The course is now being designed for an online delivery system and the use of electronic portfolios to document students' experiences. Currently, thirty students and six agencies are involved in the program.

Second Mile

Second Mile is a project aimed at improving the retention rates of second-year students by extending the support mechanisms traditionally provided for first-year students while creating unique opportunities for sophomores to develop effective leadership skills. Second Mile reflects the possibility that the transition from high school student to successful university student may take more than one year for a significant number of students.

A FIPSE planning grant was awarded for the Fall 2000 semester and the program is being revised to design a more comprehensive evaluation framework. Additionally, a technology-based dissemination plan is being refined. The revised grant will be submitted to FIPSE for possible funding beginning with the Fall 2001 semester.

Two performance measures for this objective are that the retention rate for first-year students will increase by 3% and the retention rate for sophomores will increase by 2%. Although the retention rate for the Fall 2000 class will not be available until the first semester of the Fall 2001 academic year, the trend for the past three years suggest that the program activities implemented through GUAC have yielded retention gains. Retention of all first time freshman from fall 1999 to fall 2000 increased by 12% from 52% to 64%.

Additionally, staff members in the General University Academic Center have made presentations at national and state conferences describing successful programmatic activities offered through the General University Academic Center.

Objective 2
Improve the academic advisement process to ensure that first-year students and THEA responsible students have access to an academic support network with ongoing orientation, intensive extended contact with GUAC Advisors, and increased use of academic and social support services available through University and community resources.

Accomplishments
Several initiatives have been identified during this grant period to increase Advisor-Advisee contact. These include the following:

• Beginning with the Fall 2000 semester, efforts were made to enroll first-year students into the orientation section taught by their assigned Advisors. This provided opportunities for additional contact with the students during the critical first semester.
• Improvement of the "B or Better" process to ensure that students who meet the provisions of this law are served more effectively.
• Modification to the dual-level advisement form and plans to pilot the new forms with the College of Science and Technology in the spring.
• Multiple mailings to Advisees during the course of the semester.
• Designing an e-mail process for communicating with advisees to be piloted during the Summer I session.

The performance measure of a minimum of 200 Advisor/Advisee contacts has been met.

Advisor Contacts Fall 2000 - Present

Objective 3
Continuously expand the academic support and learning assistance provided to students through the Interdisciplinary Laboratory so that students will pass all three parts of THEA within 24 months of their initial attempt of the test.

Accomplishments
Student performance on THEA following intervention in the GUAC laboratory is forty-eight (48%) percent. However, there was a need to upgrade software in the laboratory and add additional computers to the area. State funds were used to purchase PassKey, a prescriptive learning system that is correlated with the Texas Higer Education Assement (THEA) Test. The GUAC Laboratory staff will be involved in an intensive 2-day training period during April. Students will be using the program beginning with the Summer I session. Additionally, Laboratory Facilitators have been creative in identifying websites that are used to provide practice materials for students as well as self-directed learning activities.

Objective 4
More effectively monitor the academic progress and THEA related responsibilities of students through the BANNER Enrollment Management and Planning System to reduce instances of academic probation and THEA compliance problems.

Accomplishments
Academic Advisors in the General University Academic Center continue to receive substantial training in the use of the BANNER Enrollment Management and Planning software following new version upgrades.

IV. BUDGET INFORMATION
Thirty-five percent (35%) of the budget has been encumbered to date, and all funds will be exhausted at the end of the budget period.