Release date: May 19, 2003

AASCU members set hallmarks for improving first year experience at college

Washington, DC -- Striving to enhance learning and retention of first year college students, 123 of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) members are partnering with John Gardner's First Year Policy Center to establish the Hallmarks of Excellence in the First Year of College.

The project's goal is to create a model for how to design and execute an effective set of programs for the first year of college. The standards developed will emerge from AASCU campus experience and will be appropriate for the unique circumstances of AASCU institutions.

"This project will develop and validate a model of excellence for the first year specifically for AASCU institutions, and develop a process to help campuses measure the attainment of excellence as embodied in these 'hallmarks,'" said John Gardner, executive director, Policy Center on the First Year of College. "By the project's end, a research- and AASCU-based model will be available to enhanced student learning and retention."

Kennesaw State University is just one of the AASCU institutions participating in the Hallmarks project.

The project is funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Atlantic Philanthropies.

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AASCU is a higher education association whose membership is comprised of more than 425 colleges, universities and systems of public higher education throughout the United States and its territories.

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Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive, residential institution with a growing student population of 15,600 from 118 countries. The fifth largest out of 34 institutions in the University System of Georgia, KSU offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.