GSU prepares for freshmen

      Governors State University students know that their school is unlike any other.  GSU students also know that one of the major reasons GSU is different from other universities is that the school does not have lower division students.  In the Fall of 2014, however, everything will change as GSU will welcome its first freshmen class.

     To say the arrival of freshmen students marks a significant change for GSU is an understatement.  Since its founding in 1969, GSU has strictly been an upper division school.  During the 1960's, upper division schools were a popular trend in education.  Other schools, such as the University of Illinois at Springfield (originally known as Sangamon State University) and John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California, were also founded as upper division colleges around the same time as GSU.  Upper division schools were popular during the 1960's and 70' because the emergence of community colleges increased the need for institutions that community college students could transfer to in order to continue their education.

      Over time, however, upper division schools declined in popularity.  Most schools that began as upper division colleges transitioned from two year to four year institutions in the 1990's and 2000's. There are currently only six colleges left in the United States that are upper division schools. This number will be reduced to four in 2014.  In addition to GSU, The University of Houston - Clear Lake, located in Pasadena, Texas, will welcome its first freshmen class in the Fall of 2014.

     Bringing freshmen into the fold creates many new opportunities for GSU, yet also creates many new challenges.  Some of the issues facing GSU as it plans for lower division students include developing new curriculum for freshmen and sophomore students, adding student housing, and adding faculty and increasing student services to accommodate the new students.  Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the university, however, is how the university can distinguish itself as school that freshmen will want to come to.  What does GSU have to offer freshmen students that they can't get at another school?

     According to Aurelio Valente, GSU's Dean of Students and Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, the school is planning an innovative program for freshmen that will take advantage of both the opportunity to create a curriculum from scratch, as well as the resources and student body that is already in place at the school.

     "There are three things GSU will be able to offer freshmen students that other institutions will not," said Dean Valente.  "First is a curriculum that is designed for them, and not for students 50 years ago.  Second, in their third year, they are going to have intergenerational experiences.  Third, this is the only school where freshmen will be able to live in apartments.  They're going to have independent living in a way they cannot on other college campuses."

     GSU's lower division curriculum must meet the Illinois Board of Higher Education and Illinois Articulation Initiative's general education requirements.  The school plans on differentiating itself from other universities by placing freshmen into educational cohorts.  Through these cohorts, freshmen and sophomore students will meet their general education requirements in a way Valente believes will be more engaging, enriching, and supportive than what community colleges and traditional universities can provide.

    According to Valente, the cohort model will help students establish stronger connections with each other, which will lead to a greater network students can rely on as they embark on their careers.  Student will stay in their cohorts their freshmen year, with some carry over into their sophomore year.  "What we hope the cohorts do is create a supportive environment," said Valente. 

      GSU will admit 270 freshmen in the inaugural 2014 class.  According to Valente, the 270 freshmen will be divided into three cohorts of 90 students.  Each cohort will move together through their general education classes.  In addition, each cohort will be presented with a theme or question to explore.  This will allow freshmen students to meet their general education requirements while simultaneously engage with a topic of interest to them.  The cohort model is one that GSU administrators will be more beneficial to freshmen students than what is typically offered at community colleges or universities.

     Upon entering their junior year, students will leave their cohorts and become fully engaged with the traditional GSU student body.  Because GSU will continue accepting the school's traditional student base of working adults, young students who come to GSU as freshmen will have the opportunity to learn alongside, as well as from, their older counterparts.

     Benefits of cross-generational learning extend to adult students as well.  According to Valente, the school will add new faculty to GSU, as well as expanded student services, to accommodate the freshmen.  In addition, the school will be adding on-campus student housing.  Although the housing will be made available to all students, including freshmen, Valente envisions that most of the students living on campus will be adult students and international students.

     "Having freshmen will add consistency to the student population. It will help create a 24/7 culture, and services will have to expand to meet the 24/7 culture," said Valente.

     Although admitting freshmen to GSU will create many new opportunities for GSU and its students, there is still much work to be done.  The school is still in the planning stages of its lower division curriculum.  Ground has yet to be broken on student housing.  Construction on the E & F buildings is still ongoing, and planned renovations for the A building are not yet underway.  Faculty must still be added, and services still need to be revamped in order to handle the greater demand that lower division students and students living on campus will require. 

    "This is not easy," said Valente. "We have to create and reconceptualize services.  We have to unpack assumptions.  How we've done things is no longer applicable."