Summer 2024
Subject: Campus Update - Gardner Institute Partnership, A Message from the Provost Office
Members of the Campus Community,
As President Clark shared in his message to the campus on October 31, 2023, Bridgewater State University has been selected to participate in a new national initiative, Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience, which aims to reimagine the critical first two years of college education when students create the foundation for ultimate success and degree completion. BSU was one of only 11 institutions nationwide, and the only one in New England, selected by the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education to participate in its inaugural cohort.
Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience requires a five-year commitment, which was launched via the participation of a BSU team in a Leadership Academy beginning in July 2023. In the first year of the project, Gardner will work with BSU on discovery, capacity development, and planning phases, while implementation will begin in the second year. Ongoing scaling, evaluation, and capacity development will take place throughout the third through fifth years of the engagement.
Earlier this academic year we shared the good news of our university’s selection to participate in a new Gardner Institute national initiative - Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience. This academic year has marked the beginning of our five-year engagement in deep institutional work to reimagine the critical first two years of college education at BSU. As we reflect on this first year of activities, we wanted to share some key milestones that have been accomplished and to communicate next steps for Fall 2024.
Looking back
Following participation in the Gardner Institute’s Leadership Academy in Summer 2023, our campus began the initial assessment phase of the project, which was designed to help the Gardner Institute team get to know BSU by sharing key data about the university and our students. To help them understand our campus community's perspectives regarding the BSU experience, we invited 978 faculty, librarians, staff, and administrators to complete two surveys and then engaged groups of students in our first series of “student voice” focus group sessions.
Once the assessment phase was completed, a group of 30 members of our campus community representing a range of BSU experiences and divisional roles came together to review the results. Our Gardner Institute colleagues facilitated an exercise that helped this group develop a proposed action plan encompassing a mix of shorter-term academy programs and longer-term guided redesign processes through Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience.
In April and May of 2024, we successfully launched participation in two Gardner Institute academies that were identified as high priority for our participation as soon as possible:
Academy on Emergency Aid and Basic Needs: A cross-divisional team is currently participating in this academy led by Dr. Chris Frazer, Interim Assistant Vice President for Student Life.
Academy on the First College Year: A 14-person, cross-divisional team led by Lauren Folloni and Dr. Cindy Kane has recently completed this academy. This team's work has created some foundational material that will be used in the First Year Redesign process.
Next steps
Summer and Fall 2024 will be focused on two key priorities.
First, we will be developing material that will be housed on our BridgeNet site to assist faculty, librarians, administrators, staff, and students in understanding the initiative itself and stay connected to the outcomes of projects that are undertaken. The Enrollment, Marketing and Communications division will also help us develop an externally facing website for the project.
Beginning in Fall 2024, we will initiate our engagement with a process called First Year Redesign. This two-year process will engage many members of our university community examining the student experience through nine dimensions of the first college year. This model, previously known as Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year, was successfully used by BSU from 2005-2007 in transforming first-year students' experience. We look forward to taking a fresh look at the BSU student experience to evolve and meet the needs of today’s students.
Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience is off to a good start at BSU, and there is more to come. If you are interested in being a part of this work or would like to recommend either a colleague or a student, please submit an interest form linked here or email the ProvostOffice@bridgew.edu with information about your areas of interest.
Thank you to the faculty, librarians, staff, administrators, and students who have contributed to the first year of this work. We are looking forward to involving even more members of the university community in the coming years of this exciting partnership.