Conference focuses on first-year students

Faculty and staff interested in new-student issues can attend a Friday, Oct. 6, conference organized by the Office of Orientation and New Student Programs.

Titled “Engaging First-Year Students: Strategies for Academic Success,” the session will run from 8 a.m.–1 p.m. at the Friedrick Center. The event is free and includes lunch.

Wren Singer, director of Orientation and New Student Programs, says the event ties into the First-Year Experience, a campuswide effort to enrich the first year by identifying shared goals, conducting first-year research and assessment, and engaging in dialogue on first-year issues.

“We hope that the conversation and idea-sharing will motivate faculty and staff to create classroom environments that are more inclusive and conducive to first-year student engagement,” Singer says. “Last year’s conference provided an opportunity for people who don’t normally work together, but all work with first-year students, to communicate and connect.”

This year’s keynote speaker is Craig Nelson, professor emeritus of biology at Indiana University and a Carnegie Scholar. His teaching papers address critical thinking and mature valuing, diversity, active learning, teaching evolution, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Other presenters include faculty and staff from a variety of campus departments committed to the academic success of first-year students.

For a complete schedule and link to registration, visit http://www.newstudent.wisc.edu/firstyear/conference.html.