Members of Syracuse University’s Fast Forward Undergraduate Excellence Working Group covered academic and career advising, among other topics, at a retreat at the Goldstein Student Center on Thursday and Friday.

The two-day retreat included two different two-hour discussion sessions with guest speakers, lengthy and engaged conversations about possible recommendations and smaller sub-group discussions lasting about three hours, Ralph Zito, co-chair of the Undergraduate Excellence Working Group, said. During the retreat, each of the seven Fast Forward working groups was asked to form five to seven recommendations for the university.

“We spent quite some time coming to a consensus on what recommendations were the best for everyone,” Zito said. “Given the scope of the committee’s charge there naturally was a wide variety of opinions so the challenge was getting an agreement on one thing.”

The Undergraduate Excellence Working Group cannot fully discuss the specific recommendations formed at the retreat until the final report has been completed and sent to the Fast Forward Strategic Plan Steering Committee, Zito said.

“We want to make sure the recommendations are carefully crafted before released to the public,” Zito said. “However, I can say that the recommendations do cover all aspects of undergraduate life, especially academic and career advising.”

A wide array of people attended the retreat and all of them contributed new information and ideas and added a new sense of direction. Many of SU’s schools and colleges were represented at the retreat, as well as guests from the Renée Crown University Honors Program, the Department of Public Safety, the Writing Program, the School of Education and various cultural centers in Syracuse.

“We received very strong support from all of our guests regarding the thoroughness of each working group’s findings,” Zito said. “During our discussions, members from each working group conducted the conversations and our guests used their experiences to help guide our areas of focus.”

Through various discussions, there emerged a need for more attention toward the first year experience so students can reap long-term benefits across their four years at SU, Zito said. There were also a lot of conversations about student success — not just involving GPA, but also personal and career-driven success, Zito added.

“Participating in the retreat was very fulfilling and productive,” said Steven Pincus, a senior entrepreneur and emerging enterprises, management and marketing management triple major. “We covered a breadth of different topics and it was interesting to see everyone’s findings and discoveries.”

Pincus said his favorite part about the retreat was interacting with all of the SU faculty and staff that attended the retreat and hearing different opinions on a variety of issues.

The next task deals with writing the final report, which will eventually be sent to the Strategic Plan Steering Committee. The Undergraduate Excellence Working Group is hoping to finish a draft of the final report within the next two weeks. That draft will then be tested and refined before finally being sent to the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, Zito said.

“Right now we are at the ground floor of the process for improving the university, but it is very difficult for me to imagine any of this planning heading in a negative way,” Zito said.

Both Zito and Pincus said the retreat served the purpose the Undergraduate Excellence Working Group had hoped it would.

Said Pincus: “I am very comfortable with what we achieved at the retreat. We definitely accomplished what we set out to do.”

 

Published on January 20, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann