Message from the President
Greetings from the Maryville College campus!
“Whatever the changes in this generation of college students, the Maryville College faculty remains committed to the very real students who enroll here. Today’s students can count on faculty who seek to meet them where they are and see them through to educational success. That’s still the Maryville way.”
Quoting from my own writing isn’t a habit of mine, but I think this quote from the Spring 2005 issue of FOCUS, with its theme of “Today’s College Students,” is equally appropriate for this issue on the First-Year Experience at Maryville College.
In seeking to meet our freshmen “where they are,” our faculty and staff are currently deeply committed to “FYE” activities and programs. FYE is the acronym for “First-Year Experience,” and until just recently you wouldn’t find it in any of Maryville’s publications or hear it in conversations on campus. Now it’s ubiquitous. In this issue of FOCUS, Dr. Peggy Cowan, who provides leadership for Maryville’s FYE, gives our readers greater insight into our approach to meeting these first-year students where they are.
Author James Gleick in his 1987 book Chaos coined the term “Butterfly Effect” to emphasize the fact that nature often shows a “sensitive dependence on initial conditions.” “[A] butterfly,” he says, “stirring the air today in Peking can transform storm systems next month in New York.” Small differences in how something begins can make vast differences in how things wind up. There is ample evidence that first-year college students likewise show a sensitive dependence on initial conditions, and the FYE efforts are made in recognition of that reality. Many of us, looking back on our own college experiences, can very likely point to small events from early on that made all the difference to our ultimate college success – an encouraging word from a faculty member, a sharp admonition from a coach, an epiphany during a lecture, involvement with a student publication staff, discovery of an effective study habit, signing up for choir.
If we reflect honestly on our own time in college, it is also undeniable that the experience of our first year was not summed up by what happened in the classroom. Curriculum is central, but very significant also are any number of experiences beyond the classroom. Volunteer work, playing on an athletic team, singing in the choir, serving as a student government officer, living in a residence hall – these, too, help to define the total learning experience that transforms the student who enters college into the educated graduate who claims a diploma bearing the Maryville seal.
Our faculty members know that they can’t assure a perfect life for every freshman, nor do they aspire to do so. Serendipity will always play its role in student lives. But the Maryville faculty also knows that there are ways in which we can legitimately and profitably shape the experiences of that first crucial year to maximize the success of our entering students. That’s a task worthy of their attention.
