IU plans to amplify first-year experiences

IU is looking to enhance support for first-year students by launching the Office of First Year Experience Programs.

The office is an extension of the Office of Orientation Programs, an office that had previously assisted students only until their first day of classes, said Jack Rhodes, associate vice provost and director of orientation programs. With the new office, Orientation Programs can offer support to students throughout their first year.

Rhodes said the plan is to start the program for freshmen attending IU next fall. However, the IU Office of Orientation Programs will spend the current year meeting with various individuals who are already involved in existing programs.

“It’s quite simple,” Rhodes said. “We at Indiana do a very good job at what we offer our first-year students. Be it what happens in University Division, orientation, residence halls, we have much to offer our first-year students. The way we view this office is actually one that will help the institution take the experience to a higher level.”

IU’s Office of Orientation Programs is nationally recognized for its services, such as Welcome Week and IUBeginnings, and IU’s freshman-to-sophomore rates top the national standard at 88 percent, according to an IU press release.

But IU can do better, Rhodes said.

The goal of the Office of First Year Experience Programs is to reach out to as many first-year students as possible in an effort to engage students and help them succeed. The Office will collaborate with various departments and programs across campus in an effort to provide students with information about resources, Rhodes said.

When sophomore Ricky Owens attended a business conference at IU the summer before his senior year in high school, the only thing he knew of IU was Bob Knight and the legacy of Indiana basketball. During his one-week stay at the conference, he lived in the McNutt Quad, toured campus and even peeked inside some classrooms.

He decided to enroll, and during his freshman year he became heavily involved and is now an office assistant and undergraduate coordinator at the IU Office of Orientation Programs.

Owens said familiarity with campus and involvement in programs helps make for a quicker adjustment to IU.

“One of the biggest things students face is that campus is huge,” he said. “The more you’re on campus the smaller it feels, and the more involved you get, the family of 40,000 students becomes smaller.”

The model being implemented by IU is not anything new. IU studied first-year programs already in place at other Big Ten schools, such as Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan and Minnesota.

The intent of the new office is not to wipe out existing programs for first-year students; it’s to highlight those that already exist at IU and by working together with departments across campus to establish new programs that will lead to student success.

Roger Thompson, vice provost for enrollment management, agreed.

“It’s critical to our success,” he said. “That’s how the best things get done: when everyone works together."