{"id":1792,"date":"2021-04-19T14:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/magazine\/?p=1792"},"modified":"2021-05-01T15:03:30","modified_gmt":"2021-05-01T19:03:30","slug":"cohort-2025-curriculum-community-camaraderie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/magazine\/cohort-2025-curriculum-community-camaraderie\/","title":{"rendered":"Cohort 2025: Curriculum, Community, Camaraderie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"

Cohort 2025 builds on a model established by the Honors College. Here, Dean Linda Frost (right) joins Angela Dittmar, director of teaching artist residencies, with students participating in an Honors innovation lab focused on new approaches to creativity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Gina Stafford<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WWhen the incoming class of freshmen arrive at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for fall semester 2021, they will find a campus environment unlike any freshman class has found before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fall\u2019s freshmen will make up the inaugural class of \u201cCohort 2025,\u201d a sweeping new approach to building community through cohort groups of incoming students around their main interests, whether: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 academic 
\u2022 professional  
\u2022 extracurricular  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Cohort 2025\u00a0project\u00a0is so\u00a0named\u00a0to signify that the incoming freshman class will be the first to complete all four undergraduate years\u2014by\u00a02025\u2014fully\u00a0as members of cohort groups.\u00a0\u201cLiving-learning communities\u201d are one of Cohort 2025\u2019s multiple elements, all of which\u00a0fall\u00a0into one of three broad areas: residential learning communities, learning communities (to include commuter students) and \u201cconnections\u201d communities built around shared interests in recreational, extracurricular or service activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tDEFINING THE UTC EXPERIENCE\u00a0<\/span>\n\t<\/span>\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the initiative\u00a0is intended\u00a0to increase student retention and graduation, Chancellor Steve Angle says\u00a0he also wants\u00a0it\u00a0to\u00a0become\u00a0part of what \u201cdefines a UTC experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of a high-impact practice that works, there’s a lot of data, nationally, to show that retention and graduation rates are higher for students who get more connected with the institution and other students,” Angle says. “It\u00a0is something that I’ve been focused on for a while.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He announced the initiative during his September 2020 State of the University address:\u00a0\u201cBuilding on the model of our Honors College, we will expand programs that bring together groups of incoming students in cohort experiences. We have set an aggressive goal to offer every incoming student such an experience beginning fall 2021.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery year, we\u2019re adding something new, giving students more and more avenues and opportunities to engage.\u201d<\/em><\/p>Valara Sample<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Vice Chancellor Yancy Freeman is leading the project. \u201cFor me, it covers the full spectrum of student success. It\u2019s about how we provide the type of support resources for our students and get them connected so that they find their niche, their community and they thrive in that community,\u201d Freeman says. \u201cIt\u2019s about those students feeling more connected to campus and developing life-long relationships with other students. It\u2019s about taking skills for career success and, hopefully, some affinity to the University so if there is time or resources to share later on in life, they will want to give back to campus in some way.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freeman says the approach has been in place \u201cin pockets for a while,\u201d originating with students in the Honors College in 2013, followed by the College of Business and the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The College of Health, Education and Professional Studies joins the approach this fall, and the College of Arts and Sciences will participate starting in fall 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tIT STARTED WITH Honors\u00a0<\/span>\n\t<\/span>\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Linda Frost joined UTC in 2013 as founding dean of the Honors College, students in the Brock Scholars program \u201corganically\u201d found each other as a result of being enrolled in the same curriculum and living in the same residence hall. As Frost worked to build out and increase membership in the Honors College\u2014which includes the Brock Scholars Program\u2014she began by organizing a freshman living-learning community, \u201cHigh-Achieving Mocs\u201d or HAM. Frost says students in the program lovingly referred to themselves as \u201cHAMmers\u201d or \u201cHAMsters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was at Eastern Kentucky University (before coming to UTC), we had a really robust Living-Learning Community (LLC) program. Every freshman was in an LLC. They all lived in the same residence hall. They had coordinated coursework, and there were theme-based LLCs as well,\u201d Frost says. From both her work there and research for her book, Housing Honors<\/em>, Frost became a big believer in the power of LLCs to benefit students in multiple ways.\u202f\u201cThe Living-Learning Community model is central to honors education and always has been,\u201d Frost says. \u201cThe honors program when I came here was fabulous\u2014truly fabulous; but while Brock Scholars has always been a preeminent program, the piece they didn’t have was a true living-learning community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By fall of 2017, Stagmeier Hall was home to both the High Achieving Mocs and all Brock Scholars freshmen. \u201cWhat happened at Stagmaier is exactly what should happen in an LLC,\u201d Frost says. \u201cDoors were open all the time, people were running back and forth into each other’s rooms. They were in the hallway up late at night, talking about their humanities class, the six-hour intensive reading writing course that they all take.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t throw programs at a Living Learning Community. What you do is set up all of these integrated pieces, very intentionally, and then sit back and watch it organically take off.\u201d\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Honors College is inherently interdisciplinary\u2014students can pursue any major at the University\u2014and it will be a \u201cresidential college\u201d in fall, when all honors students, freshmen through seniors, will be housed in the same residence hall.\u202f\u201cIf you take the things that honors has figured out that are really good for students and you build them out across campus, you will have a powerful model for student happiness,\u201d Frost says. \u201cFinancial concerns are probably the biggest reason students leave a campus, but many also leave because they just haven’t connected to anybody.\u201d LLCs and residential colleges encourage that connection to happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tRollins Scholars LLC\u00a0<\/span>\n\t<\/span>\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eight years ago, the Gary W. Rollins College of Business introduced its\u00a0LLC\u00a0for business majors of all concentrations.\u00a0In 2018, the Rollins name came with an\u00a0historic,\u00a0$40-million\u00a0gift\u00a0that resulted\u2014among many new programs\u2014in that\u00a0inaugural LLC\u00a0becoming\u00a0today\u2019s\u00a0Rollins\u00a0Scholars\u00a0LLC.\u00a0The initial LLC cohort had 24 students, and its Rollins Scholars successor cohort today has 38 students, toward an eventual capacity of 80.\u00a0\u201cIf you go back eight years,\u00a0there were a lot of\u00a0conversations around outcome-based funding and all those things\u2014how\u00a0do you increase retention rates within the College and provide greater opportunities for students that engage them with the college and the business community, that\u00a0was\u00a0what drove\u00a0it,\u201d says Dean Robert Dooley. \u201cAlso,\u00a0how do you create the next generation of leaders in the\u00a0College?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you connect with these students early, as freshmen, they\u00a0ultimately\u00a0become the ones leading the clubs.\u00a0They’re\u00a0involved in the\u00a0College\u2019s\u00a0Student\u00a0Advisory\u00a0Council.\u00a0They’re\u00a0the students participating in student government. We’re kind of creating a pipeline of leadership, and that was another reason for doing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fall, Business launches its own residential college, and\u00a0Jaclyn\u00a0York, program director for Rollins Scholars and the College\u2019s career services office, anticipates an eventual LLC for each major.\u00a0\u201cI envision at some point\u00a0additional living, learning communities like\u00a0\u2018Idea\u00a0Central,\u2019\u00a0which is the entrepreneurship one,\u00a0attached to\u00a0every major that wants\u00a0to have one,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cI can see a living-learning community around the\u00a0SMILE (Student Managed Investment Learning Experience) Fund for\u00a0those students who are like-minded in terms of portfolio management\u00a0and\u00a0investments.\u00a0You see what works and you see what doesn’t,\u00a0and you have to shift and change and adapt.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York also teaches a first-year experience course for all freshmen that covers the range of majors and opportunities within the College, along with introducing them to business career culture and tools for success. \u201cCurrently as they come in, they take my class as freshmen and it’s very much professional development,\u201d York says. \u201cThe first semester they learn how to interview through community members coming in and doing mock interviews and resume reviews with them. We\u2019ve done a mentoring program this semester, and we usually do on-site tours of local companies the second semester, but COVID forced us to change that.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s so much fun to see the students really connect, and I think that\u2019s only going to be stronger as we go forward and they all have an opportunity to be a part of groups of students who are like-minded and take their course work seriously and living together on the same dorm hallway.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tcompelling results\u00a0<\/span>\n\t<\/span>\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Five years since the College of Engineering and Computer Science introduced an LLC, the College will offer 12 cohort groups this fall. One cohort is the residential community, six cohorts will be built around the College\u2019s engineering-specific first-year experience course, and the remaining five will be based on students taking the same three courses together as freshmen. Early success is the reason for expanding, says Dean Daniel Pack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRetention has improved in students going from freshman to sophomore year, as well as their GPAs,\u201d Pack says. \u201cI know we’re working with a small group, so I don’t know if it’s statistically solid, but whether it is or not, we have seen that the ones who have gone through the program are doing better in retention and in their coursework. That’s why we’re expanding it, and that’s why we\u2019re putting value into this experience for our freshmen. The plan for this fall is that all our freshmen students will be coming into some sort of cohort experience, whether it’s residential or first-year experience course, or just taking three courses together.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n

Pack says he hopes \u201cthere is a strength in numbers\u201d in the cohorts, that they can knit together a community of student support for classmates who may struggle with challenging courses such as calculus, physics, inorganic chemistry. \u201cSeeing that they aren\u2019t the only ones having difficulty and that they can help each other or get help as a group from teachers or administrators,\u201d Pack says, \u201cthat\u2019s a powerful resource and a network this cohort system provides.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While LLCs aren\u2019t rare\u2014600 such programs are found at the more than 3,000 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S., according to the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators\u2014Provost Jerry Hale says the extent to which UTC plans to implement cohort experiences is exceptional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are lots of ways it can be done and have been done at some of the places I’ve worked, but I don’t recall any of those places thinking about it in as comprehensive a way as we are hoping to implement it for our campus,\u201d Hale says. \u201cThe heavy lifting is going to be done through enrollment management and student affairs\u2014Vice Chancellor Freeman and his group\u2014having to figure out cohort scheduling, what the classes are to be involved, how to navigate students into them, how students connect to the campus and to one another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso\u2014and I’ll use some technical language now\u2014I think it’s going to be really cool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tresidential learning communities\u00a0<\/span>\n\t<\/span>\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Abeer Mustafa, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management and student affairs, and Valara Sample, executive director for residential education and campus life, have been focused on the \u201cheavy lifting\u201d necessary in campus housing for months.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They explain that \u201cresidential learning community is the umbrella term\u201d for three types of campus-dwelling cohort groups\u2014LLCs, or living-learning communities; themed learning communities, or TLCs; and residential colleges. Themes in TLCs can cover the gamut: music, a foreign language, E-sports and gaming, performing arts\u2014any of a range of interest areas that can bring students together. \u201cThere are so many layers that students receive\u2014it\u2019s not just a heads-in-beds approach,\u201d Mustafa says. \u201cOur resident advisors and resident directors are trained in residential curriculum and there are expectations for what they deliver to help guide and coach students through their first-year living experience. There are a lot of high touches and support to help students succeed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThere are so many layers that students receive\u2014it\u2019s not just a heads-in-beds approach,\u201d Mustafa says.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sample says \u201ca lot of intentional programming\u201d is the greatest difference from residence halls that serve only as a roof overhead. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten away from pizza parties to RAs doing smaller programs, one-on-one type programs where they get to know students better. \u2018Fly-bys\u2019 where they check on students just to put names with faces. In COVID, the fly-by has really paid off because it was already part of our curriculum.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That curriculum has \u201ca connection component, a diversity component and an academic component,\u201d Sample says. In fall 2020, a record-high 54% of residential students made the Dean\u2019s List, up from the usual 35%; and 38% of those on the housing Dean\u2019s List were freshmen, \u201cWe like to think our residential curriculum had something to do with that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gearing up for the Cohort 2025 launch has meant gearing up all over: renovating apartments for faculty-in-residence to live on-site, hiring an assistant director for academic initiatives, adding programming, creating a \u201cmaker space\u201d to host brainstorms in a soon-to-be named residence hall.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNext year, we\u2019ll have another new element in faculty fellows\u2014that\u2019s faculty members who have an engaged relationship with student residents, though not necessarily living in campus housing themselves,\u201d Sample says. \u201cEvery year, we\u2019re adding something new, giving students more and more avenues and opportunities to engage.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0IN STEPS CHEPS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

College of Health, Education and Professional Studies (CHEPS) Dean Valerie Rutledge has lots of ideas as she prepares for students, faculty and courses in her college to get on board Cohort 2025 this fall, but she says one element is key for now. \u201cThings like this succeed when there is some contagious enthusiasm around them, and that’s what we’re working to build\u2014to get the faculty in place who are really excited about this, who have ideas about what they want to do,\u201d Rutledge says. \u201cMaybe some who lived in a setting like or similar to this when they were in college, so they can take those ideas but also use feedback from students.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rutledge looks forward to a post-COVID\u00a0life on campus with the\u00a0possibility of hosting a parents’ weekend focused on parents of students in the CHEPS residential college, \u201cBecause lots of times, if the parents say, \u2018This is a great thing for you, I’m so glad you’re a part of this,\u2019 they’re as good a salesman as anybody we could ask for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Students take a break inside Einstein Bros. Bagels in West Campus Housing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tCOMMUNITIES OF SUCCESS<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>\n\t<\/span>\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

College of Arts and Sciences Dean Pamela Riggs-Gelasco came to UTC in summer 2020 from the College of Charleston, beginning her new position in the midst of the pandemic. She has yet to mark her first anniversary in Chattanooga but is already looking toward Arts and Sciences fully entering Cohort 2025 with the start of the 2022-23 academic year. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re in the planning stages of determining what kind of experiences we want to feature,\u201d Riggs-Gelasco says. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at one in music that will hopefully help people coming in doing marching band or choruses. There\u2019ll be a place where they can gather or play piano\u2014or maybe both\u2014in a common space. We want to do a \u2018language house\u2019 where we perhaps put in some travel experiences associated with that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s talk about bringing help resources into the dorm space so students are more likely to seek it out\u2014in math, writing\u2014when they need it, having a physical space in the dorm for that. The hope is to get students into a good pattern by making help more convenient so that they can readily access it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anybody is going to make sure that residential students have what they need on-site for their academic success, it\u2019s Joshua McPhatter, UTC assistant director of Residence Life for academic initiatives. \u201cI always explain in our training about Maslow\u2019s hierarchy of needs which says humans have to have basic physical needs of food, shelter and safety met before we can work on higher-level, \u2018self-actualization\u2019 needs,\u201d McPhatter says, \u201cand I explain that for Residence Life, it’s similar. At the foundation level of our pyramid is connection. It’s community engagement, knowing residents by name, knowing them by story. Then our hope is to progress to conversations about academic success, about diversity and inclusion, about personal growth and wellness\u2014but it all starts with that fundamental connection to who they are, where they\u2019re from and why they\u2019re here.\u201d 
 
To hear him talk, you\u2019d think McPhatter was born for the launch of Cohort 2025 this fall. \u201cIf I were to sum it up, I\u2019d say it’s making a big campus small,\u201d he says. \u201cIt’s taking a campus made up of Chattanooga, UTC, thousands of students and countless resources\u2014small and manageable. It\u2019s about taking this large institution and circling it around an academic interest, an academic major or personal interest area so that you can connect better, one-to-one. And the next thing you know, a few really good one-to-one connections become really strong communities.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dramatic change for the upcoming academic year and incoming freshman class. Cohort 2025 to sweep UTC into a new era of academic and residential community.\n","protected":false},"author":1300,"featured_media":2264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115750,115753],"tags":[101020],"coauthors":[100993],"class_list":{"0":"post-1792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cohort-25","8":"category-spring-2021-edition","9":"tag-main-story","10":"cs-entry","11":"cs-video-wrap"},"yoast_head":"\nCohort 2025: Curriculum, Community, Camaraderie - UTC Magazine Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cohort 2025: Curriculum, Community, Camaraderie - UTC Magazine Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dramatic change for the upcoming academic year and incoming freshman class. 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