Current Research

The Freshman Connections Program is currently examining teams from the 2006-2007 academic year to isolate which team characteristics are best related to student learning and retention.  An initial study during the 2005-2006 academic year helped to identify key variables, pointing initially to the critical factor of "participation by faculty team members."

Variables being considered for this fall include the following: 

• Team size
• Number of classes
• Percentage of large, medium, and small classes
• Number and type of activities
• Participation by team members
• Participation by faculty team members
• Homogeneity of team members
• Gender of students on team
• GPA of team
• Disqualification and probation rates in team
• Nature of courses taken in the fall
• Departmental major

Tentative results should be available in early summer, 2007.

Freshman Connections

1997-2005

Student Persistence

Freshman Connections began in the fall of 1997.  In 1998, the university changed admission requirements.  Clearly some of the changes in student persistence since 1998 can be attributed to that change; however, subsequent analyses indicate that only half of these changed can be attributed to higher admissions requirements.  Other factors, including FC and an integrated set of first-year programs, no doubt account for much of the remaining improvement. 

To see enrollment, retention, and grauation statistics since 1996, visit the Student Persistence link on the "Ball State University--Fact Book"

For other statistics on "Students and Enrollment," visit the Ball State University Factbook

Major Publications and Presentations: About Ball State:

Randy L. Swing and Marc Cutright.  "The Story of Ball State University: ‘Everything Students Need.'" Achieving and Sustaining Institutional Excellence for the First-Year of College. Eds. Betsy Barefoot, et al. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005. 299-321.

Major Publications and Presentations: By Ball State:

Messineo, Melinda and Neal Hoffman (2006). "Common Reader Program Implementation Strategies."  Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience, Atlanta, Georgia, February 24-28 February 2006.

David W. Concepcion, Jackie Buckrop, and John Prince, "Paper Cycles: Interdisciplinarity Without All The Fuss," It Works for Us, Collaboratively, Eds. Hal Blythe & Charlie Sweet. The New Forums Better Teaching Series.  Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press, forthcoming.

Paul Ranieri. "Freshman Connections--Eight Years Later: Meeting the Challenges of Success." 18^th International Conference on the First-Year Experience, Southampton , England, July 2005.  (For more, read England 2005 Presentation)

Melinda Messineo. "Implementing a First-Year Common Reader Program on Your Campus. "Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience, Phoenix, AZ, February 2005.

Melinda Messineo and Paul Ranieri. "'Going the Distance': Learning Communities at a Mid-Size University."  17^th International Conference on the First-Year Experience, Maui, HI, June 2004.

Michael Haynes, Cynthia Marini, Melinda Messineo, and Paul Ranieri. "Academic Advising and Freshman Connections: The Challenge of Working with Learning Communities." National Academic Advising Association, Dallas, TX, October 2003.

Kay Bales, Darrell Butler, Alan Hargrave, Michael Haynes, Randy Hyman, Charles Jones, Thomas Lowe, and Paul Ranieri. "Culture, Conflict and Collaboration in Learning Communities." National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, Indianapolis, IN, March 2000.

Randy Hyman, Douglas McConkey, Beverley Pitts, and Paul Ranieri. "Building Bridges Across Traditional Boundaries Through Freshman Connections." National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, Philadelphia, PA, March 1998.

"Freshman Year Experience Survey"

Each spring first-year students complete a Freshman Year Experience Survey.   Specific questions relate to Freshman Connections.  The following results reflect the views of 1,148 returned surveys from 2003 first-year students.  The percentages reported combine "strongly agree" and "agree" responses (bullet points #2 and #3 were answered by residence hall students only):

• "Assigning freshmen to courses with other students living in the same residence hall is a good idea"--83.6%
• "Living near students in these courses helped me make friends"--68.9%
• "Living near students in these courses helped me with my studies"--66.5%
• "Professors referred to similar ideas"--53.6%
  

Percentages on all four of these responses rose since the previous survey.