How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single minute before starting to improve the world.”
Anne Frank
First Year Experience-CSU, Chico
Faculty
Welcome
Welcome to the First Year Experience Web site. Here you will find information about Chico State’s FYE programs as well as resources for teaching and advising first-year students. To some degree, good teaching practices (such as the Seven Principles of Good Undergraduate Teaching) are the same whether students are in their first year or senior year. But it is also true that first-year students have their own set of unique circumstances and characteristics that present faculty with particular challenges inside and outside the classroom.
One of the biggest challenges we face is the clash of expectations between students who have been socialized to certain behaviors throughout their K-12 experience – particularly in high school – and faculty expectations regarding student work, effort, and engagement in the material of our courses. Research has shown that the first days and weeks of a new college student’s experience shape attitudes and habits toward learning that often endure for their entire undergraduate career. The FYE program is available to help faculty teaching first-year students by providing programmatic support, links to resources, and consultation to help better understand and surmount these challenges.
Chico State’s FYE program includes activities that cross-cut the University with a heavy emphasis on academic affairs and student affairs. These include programs in the residence halls, advising, and specially designed curricular interventions (such as CourseLINK and UNIV101) to assist first-year students in their transitions to college life. Remember, new students spend on average 15 hours per week in the classroom. Much of the college student's experience occurs outside the classroom. These out-of-class experiences are just as important as the classroom in terms of socializing our students to the community of learning, service, and personal growth we strive to create at Chico State.
We invite you to explore the FYE Web site to find more information about first-year students and the FYE program at Chico State. Those of you involved in the FYE program recognize the centrality of faculty to the University’s mission of excellence in undergraduate education. Faculty success in creating an engaging and vibrant intellectual community is central to the realization of that mission. How can we help you?
William
M. Loker
Dean of Undergraduate Studies
Thia
Wolf
Director, First Year Experience