Challenging and Supporting the First-Year Student: A Handbook for Improving the First Year of College

by M. Lee Upcraft

From the authors of the landmark book The Freshman Year Experience comes an update volume that takes up where that book left off. Written by top experts in the field, the book covers four main demographics of first-year students, academic dimensions of the first year experience, support systems and services, and strategic tailoring of programs and services to institutional type.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published October 25, 2004

Reviews

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have attended workshops led by John Gardner. I read the Freshman Year Experience. This goes well beyond the coverage of the original. The editors begin by saying that this book is effectively an updated edition of the Freshman Year Experience. I disagree. The contributions / essays feel repetitive. They lack the coherency and consistency of the original book. The thing I liked about the original is that it felt like there was a single author. The writing, the flow, the internal referencing, all felt like one person or team was writing everything. This book is more like a standard collection of entries on way more topics.

The subject matter is way more broad. I was pleased to see a section about libraries and the first-year experience until I read it and thought that the author did not work in a library. The contributor is an admissions counselor. I know I run the risk of besmirching the entire book based on one entry; but it is the area in which I am most familiar. That does not mean the information was wrong or incorrect; but it felt forced and giving the impression that the contributor did not have much connection with the library - sort of like grading an undergraduate paper. The information may be accurate; but there is something odd about an undergrad writing about a concept they just learned.

As I read through more sections, I was left with the impression that the more and more often, the authors were repeating each other or the original book. The assessment section was a bit disappointing. I did learn about several resources that use national data and allow institutions to compare themselves to sister schools. But they do not help in assessing initiatives by individual institutions. I certainly have only vague ideas how to measure the impact of the library on first-year retention. Neither the sole entry on libraries, nor the collection of essays on assessment went into more specific actions or recommendations.

Overall, this book was a struggle to complete. The editors have added a lot more areas of content; but I have not learned much more than what was said in the original. Furthermore, at the conclusion of this volume, the editors offer a brief 10-page summary of the book as the principles of good practice and recommendations. I recommend the original, unless the reader is responsible for a specific corner of the assessment genre, and can read the relevant passages.

[Mills College Library]

378.198 U65 2005