Freshmen get a head start with Intensive Seminar

A group of 385 incoming freshmen appeared on campus Saturday for a three-week introduction to IU academics and facilities as participants of the Intensive Freshman Seminar (IFS) program. While IFS begins its 13th year, a similar program, Summer Freshman Institute (SFI), will not continue this summer after only two years of existence.\nOpen to any admitted freshman, IFS supplements its orientation program by further establishing a familiarity with the campus itself, but also provides an understanding of academic obligations. IFS allows a student to experience the work that the fall semester will entail by requiring enrollment in one three-credit hour class, which is led by an IU professor and applies toward the student's degree of choice.\n"The primary benefit of attending IFS is the connection with a veteran faculty member," said Mike Beam, director of the program. "Through that we make sure our students are exposed to, academically, everything they need to be prepared for."\nSidni Brown, an IFS freshman last year, also attributed the program's effectiveness to the faculty, as well as Resident Assistant involvement. Brown returned this summer as an RA in order to assist in its successful operation, she said.\n"IFS definitely gave me a feel for how college was, academically," Brown said. "I felt a lot better when school started because I had a head start on everybody."\nIFS freshmen exhibit this advantage in a slightly higher grade point average in their first year and more campus involvement than other freshmen, Beam said. With the use of surveys, the student response is clear, he added.\n"Every year, 90-plus percent say they came away learning more than they thought they would," Beam said. "Students come back and say IFS was one of the best experiences in their academic careers."\nFor the SFI program, the experience is under evaluation.\nPreviously, SFI allowed those students who had not necessarily gained admission a chance to attend IU in the fall, provided each complete two three-credit hour courses with a grade point average of 2.0 or above, with no more than one course grade below a C, said Sara Hinkle, assistant director of IFS. Unlike the IFS program's more rigorous curriculum, the six-week SFI courses were instructed by AI's, under the direction of three lead professors, she said.\nWhile both programs experienced the minor disciplinary problems obvious to a group of several hundred incoming freshman, the SFI program was blamed for vandalism to the fifth floor lounge of Teter Hall last year, Hinkle said.\n"Basically, all lounge equipment was thrown out the window," she said. "Since we couldn't identify who specifically was involved, it was RPS (Residential Programs and Services) policy to assess damage to everyone living on the floor." \nThis incident did not contribute to the discontinuation of SFI, Hinkle said.\nBeam agreed. The program is actually under evaluation for possible improvements, he said.\n"Not doing SFI this year was never presented to me in the context of discipline," Beam said. "We're targeting a group that needs additional attention. We have to be careful how we create that program to make sure students get maximum benefit from it."\nThis evaluation was initiated by a group of sociologists who investigated the performance of SFI for two years. Their research showed that students were not accruing maximum benefit.\n"To assess the effectiveness of the program, we relied on GPA information," said Jenny Stuber, a doctoral student in sociology. "Essentially the question was, 'How did participating in SFI impact GPA?'"\nTo answer this question, researchers analyzed surveys of students, interviewed administrators and instructors involved with SFI, observed classrooms, obtained basic demographic information and examined high school performance, she said. During a meeting with the administration, the researchers presented the results, which concluded the SFI program required changes, she said. "Essentially students who participated in the SFI program did not exhibit improvement in the freshman year, and their academic performance was not significantly different from a control group of students with similar high school profiles," Stuber said.