Becoming a Student-Ready Institution
Becoming a Student-Ready Institution
All UI faculty and staff have an important role in creating an institution that is student ready. We can all contribute to this process by working together to better understand students' needs, learning how to build stronger, more meaningful relationships, and contributing towards a welcoming, more inclusive campus community.
The first principle in Becoming a Student-Ready College is that all people who work on campus have the capacity to be effective educators. However, you cannot be an effective educator if you do not understand and embody the goals and priorities for student success or if you are isolated from change efforts to transform the institution.
BUILD Session: Focus on First-Generation College Students
This interactive BUILD session (one of the many electives offered as part of the BUILD program) explores definitions, challenges, and successes of first-generation students. Participants learn how first-gen students experience college and develop knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to contribute to a more inclusive campus environment. This first-gen focused session, presented by staff in Academic Support & Retention, is held once per semester and requires pre-registration and participation in the BUILD program.
Departmental Workshops & Training Sessions
Is your department curious to know how undergraduate first-generation students enrolled in your classes or majoring in your programs are experiencing college? Or perhaps your unit would like to use a staff meeting or regularly scheduled professional development time to focus on learning how to better support first-gen students? Maybe your leadership team is looking for strategies to improve first-gen student outcomes? Academic Support and Retention staff are available to present customized departmental workshops and training sessions, similar to sessions offered through the UI BUILD session. These sessions, incorporating institutional data and research-based best practices, are typically 45, 60, or 90 minutes in length, but can be adjusted as necessary.
Online Modules
A series of online modules is in development that will be available in academic year 2022-2023. These engaging videos will provide an overview of what it means to be a first-generation college student at the University of Iowa, the role that intersectionality of identities has, how to make classrooms and programming more accessible for first-gen students, the importance of building relationships (and the role we all have in supporting first-gen students), and the process of evaluating and shifting our mindsets. Once ready, information on how to access these modules will be added to this website.