Director,
I agree that the communication gap between staff and students is HUGE, but I don't know if freshmen orientation is where the problems starts (or where it magnifies). Of course, I'm playing Devil's Advocate because my profession is new-student orientation!
I think it all depends on the type of orientation your institution has. At Ohio State, our orientation program is a division of Academic Affairs as opposed to Student Affairs. We focus primarily on giving students the tools they need to achieve ACADEMIC success, not social success. This past summer, however, we worked more closely with Student Affairs and the Wellness & Safety department to give students a more well-rounded orientation experience, focusing on academics, student involvement, res life issues, etc. Our student and parent evaluation reports proved that we were very successful at giving students the right information. But, we know that, in terms of communication, it all starts with Enrollment Services. This is when it gets tricky because the tendency of admissions is to "sugarcoat" things until AFTER the student has been admitted and has paid fees.
In an effort to change that, just this year, OSU has started a "Freshman Focus" program in which Admissions, Orientation, advisors, and the 1st-year survey course instructors work together to form one continuous, smoothly-connected system of dissiminating pertinent information to first-year students. With this program, we are all taking full responsibility for what happens with Freshmen from the time they're accepted, on through their entire first year, as opposed to helping them station by station. In other words, advisors can no longer point the finger at orientation if a student doesn't take a required placement test; instructors can't blame advisors for placing students into the wrong course; orientation can't blame admissions when a student doesn't receive a new-student packet; admissions can't blame faculty for retention problems. We each have to work together and communicate effectively with one another FIRST and FOREMOST before there can be any guarantee that we are communicating effectively with the students. In other words, it all starts with the administrative staff, and it trickles down to the students.
One of the best methods of research, as I know you already know, is to compare and contrast benchmark institutions. In other words look at what's happening at schools that share the same population, demographics, and characteristics. You may find that the communication breakdown occurs by school type. When I was at Howard (some 8,000 undergrads at the time), students were NEVER "in the know" about what was going on. Some things were even down-right "hush hush." But at my alma mater (2,000 students in rural Ohio), we ALWAYS knew what was going on. The info and resources were always out there. If a freshman did not succeed or get involved, it wasn't because they weren't well-informed. Howard is a large school in a large U.S. city, where only about 33% of the students reside on campus; my school is much smaller, in the boondox, where on-campus living is mandatory. You can see why effective communication is more evident at one and not the other.
Your topic is very interesting! If you'll recall, I am a communication major myself, so I am really looking forward to your research findings. Good luck, Soror!!!
the411
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Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Pi Kappa, SP97
#3 of QUINTESSENCE
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