Promoting Engagement through Innovative and Pragmatic Programs

Adapting to a growing student enrollment within any college is difficult, particularly when you are competing against colleges/universities that receive more funding and have an evolving campus climate. As enrollment increases, colleges desire to ensure they are creating a diverse student population and building an inclusive environment within day and evening student populations to ensure they feel a part of the department/school culture. Over the past seven years enrollment has grown by 49% within the engineering programs. The following will provide insight into the structure of current programs and cover results from several initiatives. These programs were introduced to: 1) improve retention of engineering students, and 2) as a result also enhance inclusivity and diversity. Funding for the programs came from several sources including: National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, corporate funds, operational funds, and discretionary funds. Introduction The Citadel has a well-known and highly-ranked engineering program. For a number of years it has been rated as one of the top 25 engineering programs by US News and World Report for Universities that offer a Master’s degree as the highest degree. With the arrival of a new Dean in 2011, he was challenged by the President of The Citadel to grow the size of the engineering program. However, the actual school culture dominated by senior faculty was that no change was required based on the high US News and World Report ranking and continual success of graduates. An assessment of student accession, retention, graduation, and hiring data showed many trends that are seen and being addressed by many engineering programs across the country – loss of 40 percent or more of entering freshman engineering students in the first year due to lack of high school preparation, loss of motivation based on performance in courses that were normally strengths in high school (mathematics and sciences), poor teaching, and inadequate advising or mentoring. These issues are listed along with many more in Seymour and Hewitt’s book Talking About Leaving. As many department heads can attest, many of the same issues exist almost 20 years after this ground breaking study. Graduating less than 40 percent of the entering freshman in six years is seen by some programs as a badge of honor that only the strong survive – a culture that did exist at The Citadel. To address these statistics and limit the need to report them officially, many large programs have pre-engineering programs that only allow a student into an engineering discipline once the student has successfully passed basic mathematics (Calculus I and II, and sometimes Calculus III), sciences (Physics and Chemistry), and engineering science courses based on the engineering discipline (Statics for civil engineering, Circuits for electrical engineering, and Statics and Circuits for mechanical engineering). Therefore, graduation rates for engineering majors are based on only those that make it through these Gateway courses. At The Citadel, students must declare a major before they arrive to campus for their first semester. The Registrar’s Office then builds the appropriate course schedule around their major choice. So each student counts in graduation statistics from the day they enter The Citadel. Therefore, some type of plan was needed to address the issues mentioned above. The new Dean led an inclusive team to establish a six year strategic plan (LEAD 2018) while presenting data noting areas for improvement, including retention and graduation numbers. The team established the following goals (which were a subset from the institution’s strategic plan) that established the foundation for creating new initiatives to address the most pressing issues: 1) enhance student retention, 2) expand engineering student enrollment, 3) enhance the non-cadet student experience by transforming the delivery of student services, 4) expand veteran, reservists, and active duty enrollments, 5) expand diversity, and 6) recruit and retain a diverse faculty and staff. Armed with the new strategic plan, the leadership team began developing new programs and setting priorities to build a culture of inclusion and resilience to stay in engineering. Programs Scholarship Program The Citadel’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was awarded an NSF SSTEM award with the goal of graduating 23 students with diverse backgrounds with a degree in Civil Engineering. So far 30 EXCEL-SC scholarships have been awarded totaling $436,000. In addition, approximately $30,000 in stipends have been awarded to 20 EXCEL-SC students for enrollment in The Citadel’s College Success Institute (summer school program prior to freshman year to acclimate students to military college life while taking up to four academic credits). The program has many elements that contribute to student success and engagement. For example, The Citadel’s Academic Support Center, through funding from a Foundation Grant, provided a graduate student to serve as the Instructional Strategist and counselor to the EXCELSC students. They facilitated a number of related activities and provided students with valuable support in academic and life-skill matters. An alliance with The Citadel Registrar’s Office allowed students to register early and be block scheduled for a majority of their courses facilitating better alignment with supplemental instruction (discussed in academic programs below) course sections while preserving an open 2-hour time slot for EXCEL-SC cohort leadership activities on Monday afternoon. The following table summarizes some of the engagement and support activities: Table 1: Example AY Summary of Student Enrichment Activities for EXCEL-SC Program Term Description of Activity Program Service Summer 2014 Summer program to assist incoming students College Success Inst. Fall 2014 Assignment to designated on-campus dormitory Learning Community Group sessions on college success and life skills Instruction Strategist College and civil engineering student mentoring Life Mentoring Multi-part diversity training Professional Skills College Leadership Day, K-12 outreach (Freshman) Community Service Field trip/mentoring session (construction & engr) Professional Skills Field trip/mentoring session (humanitarian engr) Professional Skills Spring 2015 Assignment to designated on-campus dormitory Learning Community Group sessions on college success and life skills Instruction Strategist College and civil engineering student mentoring Life Mentoring Moral and Ethical Development Educational Seminar Professional Skills Multi-part diversity training Professional Skills Girl Scout Engineering Outreach Event Community Service Local engineering competition Learning Community Field trip/ mentoring session (construction and engr) Professional Skills Field trip/ mentoring session (humanitarian engr) Professional Skills Field trip/ mentoring session (project management) Professional Skills Field trip/ mentoring session (environmental engr) Professional Skills Academic competition at student conference Learning Community Within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the EXCEL-SC program is piloting a number of activities that will be expanded to larger groups of student participants once procedures are modified for wide-scale implementation including: professional mentoring program, student mentoring program, student learning communities, institutional academic support structure, student leadership development, and embracing diversity through effective teamwork. Methods used to establish and support of the EXCEL-SC student cohort and learning community, as well as impacts on student learning and academic success, have been of great interest for possible replication by other departments on campus including: Electrical Engineering, Math and Computer Science, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, School of Education, and The Citadel STEM Center. The EXCEL-SC scholarship program has recruited a number of women and minority students into Civil Engineering. These students have joined The Citadel’s collegiate chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and have allowed us to start a collegiate chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. The presence of these organizations on campus strengthens our support of women and minority students and thus strengthens the institution and their engagement. Academic Support Programs Revamping academic support programs has become a priority for the School of Engineering to engage and retain students in the engineering majors. In the fall 2012, the focus was on final grade reports for engineering, math, and science courses. The courses were 100 and 200 level engineering prerequisite courses with the majority of freshman and sophomore studentenrollments. It was evident there was a high trend of losing students that received a D, F, or Withdraw (DFW) as their final course grade in Mathematics and Chemistry courses. The results shown in Figure 1 outline Math and Chemistry results with approximately 50 percent DFW rates, while Engineering was only at 13 percent DFW beginning in the fall 2012. The large gap that occurred between the subjects left many Engineering freshman and sophomore students wanting to switch out of their current major into Business, Criminal Justice or another major before taking significant engineering level courses since they could not complete their required Mathematics and Chemistry courses and maintain progress toward graduation in four years. It should be noted that in Figure 1, the significant decrease in Chemistry DFW rates from fall 2014 to fall 2015 could be the addition of a new course, Chemistry for Engineers (CHEM 140) as well as the assignment of a gifted teacher to that course. Previously, engineering students only had the option of taking General Chemistry (CHEM 151) for their chemistry course. The fall 2015 was the first time CHEM 140 was offered f