PAGE TURNER
by Dena Kniess and Tony W. Cawthon
Extensive research has been conducted on the first-year and senior-year experiences of college students. While a growing number of researchers have examined the sophomore-year experience, it was the seminal 2018 work of Laurie Schreiner, chair of the Department of Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University in California, that raised the profile on how the second year can influence student success. Building upon that work is Tracy L. Skipper’s Aligning Institutional Support for Student Success: Case Studies of Sophomore-Year Initiatives (National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition). This title examines strategies for supporting sophomores through 10 real-life institutional case studies, and the authors offer valuable insights into their institution’s support strategies.
Each chapter follows a similar template, providing an institutional overview, extensive descriptions of initiatives and activities, and assessments of these initiatives, concluding with the authors’ discussion of how these initiatives build on first-year programs and promote success for the final years of college. The variety of case studies is one of the book’s greatest strengths; they vary by institutional type, scope (some describe initiatives serving large populations while others describe those for smaller groups of students), and focus (some have more of a student affairs focus while others focus more on academic initiatives). The cases are categorized into one of three foci: academic and career planning, engagement programs designed to enhance learning, and creating a sense of belonging. Sample initiatives include living-learning communities, case management, and career exploration. The models are directly applicable to housing professionals or to other campus partners.
The book begins with an examination of Colorado College’s sophomore program in Colorado Springs, which includes their Sophomore Initiatives, Sophomore Jump, and Sophomore Advanced Initiative for Leadership (S.A.I.L.) Mentoring Program. The sophomore program, housed in academic affairs, offers programs such as Sophomore Welcome, Financing Study Abroad, and Choosing a Major, each designed to enhance the experiences of second-year students. The S.A.I.L. program creates a culture of mentorship to enhance sophomore students’ sense of belonging.
A later chapter provides an overview of the Second-Year Transformational Experience Program (STEP) at The Ohio State University in Columbus. The purpose of this program is to provide students with an in and out of class life-changing experience. All sophomore students are eligible to participate. Using a cohort model and faculty mentors who meet with students weekly, the goal of the program is to enhance retention and graduation rates and increase student engagement. One highlight is that each student has the opportunity to complete a Signature Project, creating a proposal and budget for the project, among other responsibilities.
Additional chapters explore a variety of other offerings. The Summer Career Exploration Experience at Indiana State University in Terre Haute is designed to help students select a major or at least reduce the number of major changes. To facilitate this, students participate in a summer internship while also being enrolled in an online course that focuses on the workplace. At Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, the university’s Statistics Living Learning Community (STAT-LLC), funded by the National Science Foundation and open to any major, serves about 20 students per year. The goal of this LLC is to train students with statistical skills for working with large data sets across all disciplines. The participants live together and take a professional development course focusing on using statistics in everyday life. The program is especially focused on underrepresented students in STEM majors. And at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California, the Sophomore Year Experience (SYE) program is a collaborative partnership of academic and student affairs, offering co-curricular and advising programs to all second-year students. The SYE program consists of three components: academic core, including academic seminars; co-curricular programming, including programs on career exploration; and high-impact practices, including study abroad, service learning, and internships.
Other featured programs are the Stella and Charles Guttman Community College’s Bridge to the Program of Study in New York City. Guttman is an associate degree-granting institution, and program initiatives include a summer bridge program, peer mentoring, a learning community, advising, and an e-portfolio. Using student success advocates and career specialists, these programs are designed to help students select a major and to complete their degrees. The University of California, San Diego’s 2Excel and 2Connect programs originated from a concern for the increasing dropout rates for African American, Chicano/a, and Latino/a students and include peer mentoring, seminars, and workshops. The SophoMORE Initiative at the University of South Carolina began as a residential program on their campus in Columbia but soon was expanded campus-wide. Foci of this program involved extensive communication (summer mail campaign, targeted email blast, etc.), a series of 15 to 20 programming events, and cross-campus collaborations to reach students at varying points of their academic experience.
The University of South Florida-Tampa’s program - which established an Office of Academic Advocacy and uses a case management model to offer care to students - identifies low, rising, and high academic risk levels using predictive analytics, academic reports, and referrals. Academic advocates serve as case managers for student concerns and use an online case management platform to document academic interventions. The final case study presented is The University of Texas at Austin’s University Leadership Network, designed to increase graduation rates for all students by getting them involved in an incentive leadership program emphasizing both leadership and professional development. The second year of the program focuses on helping students clarify academic goals and participate in an internship fair.
For housing professionals wishing to implement sophomore year programs on their campus, this book is an excellent resource. It concludes with a summary of all the initiatives and the editor’s reflections on how these case studies align with student success initiatives and how they can be scaled, funded, and institutionalized. The case studies allow the reader to consider how to institutionalize similar programs on their campus and present opportunities for collaboration with campus partners, such as academic support services and career services, to implement such programs, achieving seamless integration between student and academic affairs. The book is informative and allows readers to select cases that are most pertinent for them. For example, if a campus is interested in creating a sense of belonging among sophomore students, the reader can focus attention on the initiatives described at Colorado College, OSU, or UC San Diego. However, if a campus is interested in academic and career planning, the Purdue, UT-Austin, and South Florida-Tampa programs offer high-impact, applicable examples.
Housing professionals will appreciate the information on how they can collaborate with campus partners to enhance the sophomore year experience. They are encouraged, then, to reflect on how they are building high-impact sophomore year programs designed to ensure the future success of this vulnerable population.
Dena Kniess, Ph.D., is an associate professor of higher education administration and college student affairs in the Department of Communication Sciences and Professional Counseling at the University of West Georgia. Tony W. Cawthon, Ph.D., is an alumni distinguished professor of student affairs at Clemson University. "Page Turner" is a recurring column that pairs Cawthon with a graduate student or professional colleague as they review books and scholarship of interest to campus housing and student affairs.