Brooklyn College’s Freshman Year College, inaugurated in Fall, 1995, provides a coordinated institutional response to the challenges of serving first year students, fulfilling both the long-and short-term goals of the college. First year students receive extensive advisement and other forms of support to ensure their smooth transition into the college environment.

Freshman Year College begins in the summer with a pre-first year summer institute that provides accelerated academic programs for underprepared students. A comprehensive, on-going, student orientation and advisement program implemented by student/faculty teams begins prior to first semester registration and continues through the end of the first year. Block programming for first year students further strengthens the bonds among new students and integrates faculty and students into a unified community of learners. Coursework in the blocks is coordinated with the college’s Learning Centers, which offer one-on-one and small group tutoring sessions and computer assisted instruction in such areas as English composition and English as a Second Language.

A key to the success of Freshman Year College is that it provides an opportunity for faculty to reexamine and rethink the curriculum and pedagogy of required courses in light of the special needs of freshman students and of the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of block programming. To facilitate such activities, Brooklyn College has adopted several successful strategies for promoting faculty dialogue and collaboration. These include "Transformations: an Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar on the First Year Experience" sponsored by the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of Freshman Year College; the appointment of faculty fellows to coordinate block programming and promote communication among faculty; "Transitions," a one–day faculty seminar featuring presentations by noted authorities on learning communities and collaborative learning; and a series of seminars and workshops to introduce faculty to new educational technologies.

A retention study of freshman block students shows that 75% of Fall 1995 entering students, 74.6% of Fall 1996 students, and 79.4% of Fall 1997 students were still enrolled after three semesters, as compared with 58.8% for non-block program students. This represents a 50% increase in student retention for block program participants over statistics for students who entered in Fall 1991. The study also shows a seventeen-credit increase in credit accumulation--the equivalent of one full semester--after three semesters.

A student opinion survey also revealed that 73% of students rated the block programs as good or very good; 83.3% said they would recommend them to other students, and 83.2% said they would be willing to register for a block program again.

To date, more than 120 senior faculty have taught in Freshman Year College block programs, and 84% of these faculty members have indicated a willingness to teach in this program again. Over 200 members of the faculty have participated in Freshman Year College faculty development activities.

The results of the 1999 pre-freshman skills improvement summer program for students initially assessed as requiring remedial instruction have also been striking. At the conclusion of the program, 93% of first-year students passed the university's reading assessment test; 91% of first-year students passed the university's writing assessment test; and 98% of first-year students passed the university's mathematics assessment test.

Brooklyn College has received more than $2 million in institutional grants from the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Starr Foundation for activities in support of programs for first-year students. In August, 1999 Brooklyn College was awarded a $450,000 FIPSE grant to implement Project Preview, an online collaborative program linking the college to its principal feeder community college.

Brooklyn College was the winner of the 1998 Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for "Transformations: Faculty Development in a Freshman Year College" and of the 1999 Noel-Levitz Retention Excellence Award for Freshman Year College. Brooklyn College's first-year program has also been selected for inclusion in the John Templeton Foundation's new guidebook entitled The Templeton Guide: Colleges that Encourage Character Development. To date the undergraduate dean's office has responded to over 130 requests for information on this award-winning program from universities throughout the United States.