By
Jeff Ficker
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Freshmen will have access to advising, tutoring services by August
Behind the blue slats of the chain-link fence surrounding the east end of the UA Mall, a $20 million, 100,000 square-foot structure is taking shape.
One of the University of Arizona's most ambitious building projects will provide a home base for every incoming student.
Or at least, that is the plan.
The University College, working in cooperation with UA's library services, the Freshman Year Center and Center for Computing and Information Technology, has constructed the Integrated Learning Center to ensure the success of its most vulnerable group - freshmen.
The college, the largest on campus, is home to undecided students, interdisciplinary studies and liberal arts majors and undergraduates interested in law and pre-health professions.
This fall's freshman class will be the first group to benefit from the two-year building project.
Students will have limited access to the ILC as only advising and tutoring services will be available, said Lynne Tronsdal, associate dean of the University College.
"We are giving new students roots," Tronsdal said. "The ILC will make information available in a centralized place."
Freshmen attending summer orientation may be able to register online for their first-semester classes in the ILC's Information Commons area, a 300-computer research center that connects the ILC and Main Library, Tronsdal said.
In spring 2002, the university will begin scheduling general education courses in the ILC's four lecture halls and 10 smaller classrooms. The ILC will also provide advising, tutoring and major exploration services.
A central courtyard, visible from the UA Mall above, will have computer terminals and Internet ports for laptops available for students to check their e-mail outside.
"The ILC is more than (a) homeroom," Tronsdal said. "We want to give them a sense of place."
That sense of community is essential to freshman retention, said Dudley Woodard from the College of Education's Center for the Study of Higher Education.
"If students don't develop a sense of belonging early on, they may make a decision to leave and do something else," Woodard said. "They need to know they're valued by the university."
The university is hoping the ILC will be a key ingredient in its effort to improve freshman retention rates. Throughout the decade, UA's retention rate has remained unchanged at 77 percent - one of the worst in the nation when compared to peer institutions, according to a U.S. News and World Report study.
"It's not that the university said 'We're going to build this building, and that will do,'" said Sylvia Mioduski, Freshman Year Center director. "It is the people and services in that building that will help."
The ILC is designed to be a one-stop information center, Mioduski said. In addition to tutoring and advising, students can expect easier access to faculty and library staff.
Freshmen in the University College are not the only group that will benefit from the ILC. The college is responsible for providing services such as academic advising to students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Humanities and Science colleges. All UA undergraduates will be able to seek advising and use the major exploration services at the center.
"The idea is to serve all students as well as possible," Tronsdal said.
Yet, the heart of the center will be freshmen, and the collaboration of university services to meet their needs. Classrooms will be equipped with multimedia technology, and support staff will be on hand to assist faculty.
Critics have questioned the costs of the $20 million project, citing teaching assistants and professors' salaries as a more pressing issue.
"If you don't figure out a way to retain freshmen and give them a solid foundation," Mioduski said, "professors will not have students to teach."
A similar freshmen-retention program exists at the University of South Carolina as well as at both Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. However, the building concept of integrating classrooms and advising and library services will be the first of its kind.
"I would like this to be a model for other universities," Mioduski said.
