Innovative Student Retention Program at Brooklyn College Receives Coveted Award

Spotlight Archive

July 1, 1999

Innovative Student Retention Program at
Brooklyn College Receives Coveted Award

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Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn College has received the 1999 Retention Excellence Award from Noel-Levitz for its Freshman Year College Program. The award will be presented during the 1999 National Conference on Student Retention, which will be held from July 7 through July 10, in San Francisco. Brooklyn College was one of seven higher education institutions to receivethe coveted award for its successful efforts to retain students.

Freshman Year College was inaugurated in 1994 to equip first-year students with the skills they need for academic achievement. Building on the college's highly effective Summer Pre-Freshman Institute,Freshman Year College coordinates academic and support programs for all new students through block programming, special registration, counseling, and peer support. More than 75% of the students enrolled in block programming in their first semester between 1995 and 1997 remained enrolled after three semesters. Brooklyn's Freshman Year College has served as a model within the City University of New York.

"We made it a priority to foster an atmosphere of service and support for students during their critical first year of college,"said Ellen Belton, dean of undergraduate studies at Brooklyn College. "Our program encompasses all the facets of the first-year experience, including mentoring and other enrichment efforts."

Noel-Levitz, a USA Group Company, is a higher-education consulting firm specializing in enrollment management, financial aid, student retention, and fund-raising. The company has partnered with more than 1,500 colleges and universities, public and private, four-year and two-year, throughout the United States and Canada.

Freshman Year College also garnered national recognition for its faculty development program, Transformations, which received the1998 Theodore M. Hesburgh Award. Named for the president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame and conferred by Teachers Insurance andAnnuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) at theNational Conference of the American Council on Education, the award cited the program's impact on teaching and learning and its significance tohigher education.
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