U rolls out a welcome mat and a plan

For years, freshmen at the University of Minnesota moved into their dorm rooms, unpacked their boxes and were pretty much left to fend for themselves.

Not any longer. The big school is going small.

Short of teaching this year's class of freshmen how to do their own laundry, the U is about to provide the kind of attention usually reserved for their friends at small schools and indoctrinate 5,200 first-year students in just how things work at the state's largest university.

Starting tonight, they will begin six days of Welcome Week activities, many of them mandatory -- a word not often uttered on the Twin Cities campus. Freshmen will meet faculty members; learn about money management, health and wellness; and complete a community service project.

There will even be a little fun. The school has rented out the amusement park at the Mall of America for entertainment after Saturday's Gophers football game.

While the treatment may resemble what freshmen at Macalester, Bethel and other small colleges are getting, the U's $1.5 million effort runs counter to the national trend for large universities. Elsewhere, big colleges are cutting back.

But U officials see their expanded efforts this year as an important attempt to be a place where students are more than just an identification number. The hope is it will pay off in students who feel better, stay longer and graduate.

"One of the things that we sensed was that students were not as engaged at the university as students were at other universities," said Laura Coffin Koch, associate vice provost in the office of undergraduate education.

"We wanted to have some sort of intensive program that would really connect them to the university, connect them with each other and connect them with the faculty and staff."

That's very similar to what smaller colleges in the state do. Macalester breaks its incoming class into groups of about 30 for activities. Every first-year student went to the Minnesota State Fair earlier this week. Bethel's Welcome Week activities include advising, picnics and technology training.

Drinking deters welcome

Many schools nationally -- especially larger institutions -- are actually reducing the length of orientations and welcome weeks. For example, Michigan State is considering cutting its welcome week from five days to three next year, in part because concerns about underage drinking.

Minnesota's program is "contrary to what I hear a lot of institutions are doing," said John Gardner, executive director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College. "The movement generally across the country has been to reduce the amount of time between when students are allowed to move in and when classes actually start. What we've found is that the more time you give the students, the more time they have to see Minneapolis in ways you might not want them to see Minneapolis."

Keeping the students -- many of whom will be away from home for the first time ever -- very busy is part of the U's strategy. The schedule is full and structured.

"We really thought about how we can get the students on campus, give them the content they need and help them make the connections without it being a drinking fest," Coffin Koch said. "That's probably one of our biggest concerns."

The planning for Welcome Week, which is in addition to orientation sessions held in June and July, has been going on for more than a year. After all, designing a week of programming for 5,200 students at the same time that the State Fair is going on next door to the St. Paul campus is a challenge.

"There are a lot of people involved," provost Thomas Sullivan said. "Dorms, food service, transportation, this all has to be paid for."

An investment in graduation

But it is an investment that the university thinks is worthwhile.

"It's directly related to retention," Sullivan said. "It's related to graduation because it's going to connect students much earlier on with the array of opportunities they can have culturally, socially or academically at the university. That engagement, and as quick as you can do it, is really key to success in college today."

Low graduation rates have dogged the U for years. As recently as 1993, only 18 percent of freshmen graduated in four years. That number is now more than 40 percent, thanks to a number of incentives, but the U hopes that 60 percent of the incoming freshman class will graduate in four years and 80 percent will do so within six years.

"Research shows that the more the student is involved and engaged in student activities in leadership positions, the better they'll do in their academic work and the sooner they'll graduate," Sullivan said. "That's not always self-evident, but we want to introduce them to these opportunities so maybe they'll realize, 'Gee, maybe I should balance some of these outside the classroom opportunities.'

"We want to make them comfortable."

Jeff Shelman • 612-673-7478