Browning Living & Learning Community Program at CELS is a big help to incoming freshmen and aids with retention

All smiles: (l - r) Cathy Curtin-Miller, Dir., CELS Administration; Prof. David Bengtson, Dept. Chair, FAVS; and Jeff Seemann, CELS Dean, greet students in front of Browning Hall.

(story starts below photo at left)

they will be taking next.

Sophomore Rayna Santopietro had the Browning Hall experience last year. “You get to know people, feel you are part of something. It was really cool to say we were the only ones on campus in the program,” she says. In fact she feels the program is so good, she is interning with Lalli, helping this year’s crop of freshmen.

In Lalli’s view, the students find the program makes it easier to find a niche where they can get involved. For example, this year there are only six geo-science majors. Normally they would not get to know each other until later when they take more specialized courses. Through the Living & Learning program, they get to meet each other right away.

Grossman-Garber says the program offers an advantage for students who are first generation. The parents of such students cannot give them insights on college life issues but since the students with similar interests are living together they can help one another out. “If they have a problem, they can go next door,” she says.

The incoming freshmen also get help from mentors, upper class students who volunteer for the job. After the applicants are interviewed, a selection is made and then those students are given mentor training in the spring. The community service class gives the students leadership skills so they are prepared to co-facilitate in the classroom.

During the year the mentors meet frequently with the new students, helping them with a wide array of issues and problems.

Of course all freshmen are automatically entered in the URI 101 Traditions and Transformations class which helps students get oriented into college life but says Grossman-Garber "The CELS idea is to make it more pertinent to the environment and life sciences." University College establishes learning communities based on major and interest. CELS then focuses in on the major when planning day to day lessons.

Back at Browning Hall, the schedule offers two study sessions a week in the basement student lounge where for two hours students can find help with their studies.

Special study breaks are held at mid-semester and just before finals, complete with food and entertainment such as music and games.

This semester the planners behind the program even included a science fiction movie mini-series with films from the 1960s up to 2004. Besides providing some relief from studies, the series was designed to explore the differences in time and technology in such film-making.

Grossman-Garber and her staff are constantly evaluating the Living & Learning program in a quest to find out what works and what should be changed. Indications are more activities will be held in the spring semester and plans are being formulated for next year’s class, based on what is being learned this year.

Tops on the list is to fill a whole dorm with CELS freshmen next September on moving-in day. And to be sure, CELS faculty and staff will be on hand to welcome them.

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Photo at left: Moving Day: CELS student volunteer Fongman Wu lends assistance to the family of an incoming freshmen student during this year's Living and Learning program.

By RUDI HEMPE
CELS News Editor & Reporter

Browning Hall will never be mistaken for a swank hotel but on moving-in day in September, some 123 freshmen arrived at the dormitory and were given a VIP treatment worthy of a resort.

Students and their parents were greeted by several faculty, staff and students from the College of the Environment and Life Sciences who proceeded to help them with luggage and boxes of belongings necessary to set up their dormitory rooms.

There aren’t too many freshmen who can say the dean of their college helped them move in but that actually happened.

In addition they were handed a survival kit, or care package, consisting of such things as a planner, calendar of events, maps and snacks.

The calendar gave the students an idea of what lay ahead of them—lots of help and advice geared to get them settled into college life and off to a head start on their studies.

The whole scene was the first day of what is called the Browning Living & Learning Community program where an extra effort is being made to acclimate freshmen to the university and their college with the goal of retaining as many of them as possible down the line.

According to some recent statistics, CELS is doing a good job of retaining freshmen into their sophomore year—92 per cent (national and local benchmark data indicate a retention rate of 80 per cent).

To achieve this sort of retention, CELS Office of Undergraduate Programs has come up with a smorgasbord of events and techniques to help students get acclimated, help them with their studies, get them familiar with services that are available, show them what facilities will be theirs to use and even make sure they do not get lost, literally or figuratively.

The Living & Learning concept is not new. It was tried elsewhere on campus, says Deborah Grossman-Garber, director of

Professor Bengston helps an incoming freshmen move into Browning Hall.

Undergraduate Programs and Academic Outreach, but did not work. Two years ago Dean Jeff Seemann thought it would be good idea for CELS to run a pilot program.

The modest start involved some 20 students. Last year the program had 168 freshmen housed in Browning Hall. This

year there are 123 –a bit of a glitch occurred in the assignment of housing—but the program is humming along nonetheless.

Last year, Grossman-Garber’s daughter was one of the incoming freshmen. On moving in day, her computer wouldn’t work—to the rescue came Seemann who got it operating.

Students enjoy a tour of Newport harbor as part of the 2005 Living & Learning program festivities.

But opening day is just the beginning of the program for the freshmen. The calendar in their care packages outlines a host of activities that they can take part in such as lunches with faculty members, assistance at study sessions, field trips and even a movie series.

So far this semester there was a bay cruise on a sightseeing boat out of Newport to familiarize the students, many in marine sciences, with Narragansett Bay; faculty lunches with Marta Gomez-Chiarri and Dave Abedon and a a Micro Cosmos presentation by Lisa Tewksbury. In the coming weeks will be a faculty presentation by Nancy Fey Yensan and a faculty luncheon with Cathy Roheim.

Rosie Lalli, assistant coordinator for the Coastal Fellows Program and Experiential Learning and Gina Dei, former coordinator of CELS Undergraduate Recruitment and Experiential Learning say that the turnout at these events is small but they are reaching some of the students.

One problem, notes Lalli, is that freshmen are often so busy that taking part in any extra events borders on overwhelming. She suspects that events planned during the spring semester should draw more participation because the students will be more acclimated to the campus and to college life.

A sampling of students has elicited positive reactions to the program.

Freshman Andrea Hodgson, a microbiology student, confesses her math skills need work but is finding it really handy to have other CELS students who can help her just a few doors down the hall.

Freshman Sarah Medeiros, majoring in clinical laboratory science, likes the idea of having students in her classes living nearby. “It helps us explore the future,” she says, explaining that the students get together to map out what courses