Face to Face

FOI Fest is an interactive faculty engagement initiative designed to strengthen collaboration between faculty, student support programs, and students while promoting career exploration. This assessment evaluated whether participation in FOI Fest increased faculty awareness and involvement with the ACE and Hoop of Learning programs and supported student career exploration through hands-on, faculty-led experiences. Survey results indicated that students valued opportunities to engage directly with faculty, explore academic disciplines, and connect educational pathways to future careers.

The Life Sciences Assessment 2.0 (LSA 2.0) was developed to establish a sustainable and standardized system for consistently capturing meaningful Program Learning Outcome (PLO) data across course sections and semesters, directly supporting a 2025–2026 Wildly Important Goal to use Tableau for data analysis and evidence-based decision-making to improve student success.

Abstract

College students with disabilities can experience anxiety and discomfort when communicating with instructors about their approved accommodations.  This may be due to fears of stigma and negative reactions, communication challenges, or a sense of burdening faculty. These student concerns can lead to underutilization of accommodations, despite their potential to enhance academic success. 

WorkWise Academy is a four-part professional development series designed specifically for part-time and federal work-study staff to bridge the gap between their current roles and future career goals. This cross-collaborative effort included Career and Transfer Center, Center for Workforce and Experiential Learning and Counseling representatives. During the Fall 2025 student affairs pilot cohort, the program focused on fostering an environment that supports individual growth and professional potential.

The Career Skills Challenge, hosted by the Career and Transfer Center during the 25-26 academic year, is a low-budget, high-impact workshop series designed to teach NACE competencies through gamification. The program engaged 56 students in scenarios ranging from survival councils to office simulations. The assessment shows a 100% peer-recommendation rate and high skill-connection scores, proving that innovative storytelling and campus partnerships can be equally vital to student engagement than high-cost programming.

Introductory biology courses serve as a foundation for upper-division coursework and are expected to develop not only content knowledge but also essential skills such as note-taking, organization, and conceptual understanding. A persistent challenge in BIO156 is that students struggle to identify key information, organize their notes, and connect concepts, often relying on memorization of isolated facts. This limitation affects their ability to apply knowledge and create effective study tools, such as exam cheat sheets.

Traditional grading practices often fail to measure learning in the way instructors intend, as they can be influenced by subjectivity and implicit bias. These systems frequently turn grades into a form of negotiation, creating an adversarial relationship between students and instructors rather than a collaborative one. As a result, traditional grading can heighten student stress and anxiety while discouraging creativity, critical thinking, and cooperative learning.