First-Year-Experience Course Linking Program (“Curric-U-Link”) Vision Statement

First-year students succeed most often when they experience a sense of community, gain skills necessary to engage in campus culture, and participate in linked interdisciplinary academic programs.

As research demonstrates, first-year students learn best when faculty collaborate across disciplines so that courses become contextualized and learning is integrated. In addition, success for some students necessitates student-centered approaches that invoke the widest range of learning styles and cultural experiences.

University administration plays a crucial role in supporting faculty and students by investing time and money in first-year experience programming. This investment in student success translates into higher enrollments and increased revenues to maintain quality programs and foster new initiatives.

First-Year-Experience Course Linking Program (“Curric-U-Link”) Mission

The First-Year-Experience Course Linking Program (“Curric-U-Link”) supports student learning through:

• linking General Education courses to one another and to skills-based courses to contextualize and integrate learning,
• rewarding faculty collaboration as effective pedagogy and professional development,
• creating classroom environments that invoke the widest range of learning styles and cultural experiences, and
• providing leadership and training for faculty interested in working with first-year students through interdisciplinary, student-centered collaboration.