Key Points of Engagement
First-Year Students
First-Year Student Orientation
Point Person: Meghan Gregory
Lead Unit: Center for Student Success
Date: June and July
Description: The Orientation program is offered to all incoming students prior to their first semester at Ramapo. The Center for Academic Advisement and First-Year Experience sponsors first-year and transfer student orientations throughout the summer for those students who are admitted for the fall semester and in the fall/winter for those students who are admitted for the spring semester. Students utilize an online system to register for orientation. At orientation, students receive the information needed to start a successful academic and social experience at Ramapo College. Orientation programs include course advisement and an overall introduction to faculty, staff, and all campus resources. The orientation program also provides participants with many opportunities to connect with student orientation leaders, leaders of clubs and organizations, and other incoming students and future classmates.
Summer Reading and Convocation
Point Person: Director of First Year Seminar
Lead Unit: Director of FYS/Summer Reading Selection Committee/President’s Office
Date: Summer/Day 3 of Welcome Week
Description: First-Year Seminar is the home of the Ramapo College Summer Reading Program. All incoming first-year students will be required to read a common book selected by students, faculty, and staff members, which will be used as a discussion topic in the FYS course. Students are expected to read the book during the summer months prior to joining the Ramapo community and they will be asked to discuss issues raised in the reading and to write thoughtful responses to questions that develop in the course of engaging discussions. The summer reading is chosen each year by a committee of students, faculty, and staff from the Ramapo College community. The committee uses the following criteria to select the reading:
· Academic Merit - The subject of the book is based on important issues that can elicit rich discussions in First-Year Seminar courses. Students will learn something new or something more deeply after having read the book. The material should challenge a reader’s thinking.
· Diverse Subject - The subject of the book is diverse enough to appeal to a large number of students across the disciplines.
· Relevant Subject - The subject of the book is current, thought-provoking, and relevant to first-year students.
· Accessible Style - The book is written in a manner that is understandable to first-year students. The book does not rely on references to arcane subjects or use dated analogies to make a point.
· Engaging Author - The author is an engaging individual with good speaking skills and has the ability to hold an audience’s attention. (Use You Tube or the web to find interviews involving the author to determine this trait.)
· Related to Ramapo College’s Academic Mission – Books that have a subject that is interdisciplinary, international, intercultural understanding, or sustainability. Later in the fall, students will attend Convocation, where typically the author of the summer reading speaks.
AlcoholEdu
Point Person: Cory Rosenkranz
Lead Units: Center for Health and Counseling Services
Date: August and October
Description: AlcoholEdu for College is a two- to-three-hour program produced by Outside the Classroom. Delivered in an interactive Web-based format, the course provides basic facts about alcohol use and provides students with online feedback about alcohol-related health behaviors. The course includes five modules and is completed in two parts.
New-Student Assembly and Arching
Point Person: Meghan Gregory/Eddie Seavers
Lead Unit: Center for Student Success/Center for Student Involvement
Date: Day 1 of Welcome Week
Description: During New Student Assembly, new students and their family members receive an official welcome to Ramapo, including remarks from President Peter Mercer, the Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, the Director of Student Success, and president of the Student Government Association. Immediately following the New-Student Assembly, all new students are invited to participate in an annual Ramapo tradition. President Mercer shakes the hand of every new student as they enter the College by walking through the Arch, which marks the beginning of their career at Ramapo. Family members stand along Mansion Road to cheer and symbolically release their sons and daughters to the community.
Maroon Madness
Point Person: Kathleen Finnegan
Lead Unit: Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation
Date: Day 1 of Welcome Week
Description: The purpose of this event is to introduce new students to the programs and services available through Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation and introduce them to Maroon Mondays and the concept of being a Ramapo Rowdie. New students will receive their official Ramapo Rowdie T-Shirt and participate in the following activities:
· Workshop on health and lifestyle
· Live Music and a Host for the Evening
· Contests and Prizes
· Late Night Dining/BBQ
· Game Room
· Rock Wall
· Pool Party
· Fitness Center
· Basketball/Volleyball in the Aux Gym
· Zumba and/or a Spinning sample class in the Dance Room
· Photo booth in the Spectator Lobby
· Introduction/Celebration of the Fall Athletes (Upperclassmen only – Freshmen would take part in the evening)
Choices and Consequences
Point Person: Cory Rosenkranz
Lead Units: Center for Health and Counseling Services & Judicial Affairs
Date: Day 2/3 of Welcome Week
Description: Choices and Consequences is an interactive workshop that provides students with information about informed decisions they can make if they choose to drink alcohol in order to minimize negative consequences. This workshop reviews protective factors and risk factors about alcohol. The workshop provides students with their own personalized Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) card based on their weight and gender to help facilitate them “staying in the green zone” (safe zone) should they choose to consume alcohol. The workshop also provides students with pertinent information about the College’s Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Policy, including an overview of the expected sanctions for violations.
Green Dot
Point Person: Kat McGee
Lead Unit: Center for Student Involvement
Date: Day 2/3 of Welcome Week
Description: A green dot is any action that either directly prevents interpersonal violence or challenges the cultural attitudes that allow violence to continue. The Green Dot program is critical for first year students for three reasons. The first is the importance of reducing interpersonal violence (including sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and stalking) which 25% of females and 5% of males at Ramapo College report surviving. The program provides individuals with the necessary knowledge to identify situations that could potentially lead to violence and the skills to intervene in some way to prevent violence from occurring. The high rates of violence are comparable to other college institutions and reflect a problem within our larger culture. This leads to the second reason Green Dot is critical: it promotes bystander intervention through empathy building and an increased sense of college community. Lastly, in recognition that primary prevention is not always possible, Green Dot also introduces students to campus resources related to interpersonal violence and clarifies relevant policies (i.e. the Good Samaritan policy, confidentiality protocol, etc.) so that survivors and their support systems are fully informed of their rights and options.
Club Bites/Taste of Tuesdays
Point Person: Cory Rosenkranz/ Eddie Seavers
Lead Units: Center for Health and Counseling Services & Center for Student Involvement
Date: Day 3 of Welcome Week
Description: Club Bites, is a carnival like setting with recreational activities such as food and novelties hosted by student groups. The goal is to promote healthy choices by providing entertainment and socialization without the presence of alcohol. The event serves as an alternative to attending parties on campus, serves as a way for students to socialize with each other, and to learn about the student clubs and organizations on campus. The event is set up where all student groups are invited to have a table with an activity that students can participate in. Taste of Tuesdays showcases the offerings that happen each Tuesday night throughout the semester with activities in Linden Hall and the Scott Student Center.
First-Year Seminar
Point Persons: Director of First Year Seminar
Lead Units: FYS
Date: Fall Semester
Description: Designed for first-time, full-time, first-year students, First-Year Seminar (FYS) provides a comprehensive introduction to college-level learning. Seminar courses are developed around an academic theme or topic that is based on one of Ramapo College’s academic pillars. First-Year students will have the opportunity to select a seminar that best suits their interests while learning about Ramapo’s academic foundation. The First-Year Seminar course helps students in their transition from high school to college life both in and out of the classroom. The common learning outcomes of FYS are: critical and creative thinking, college-level writing, oral communication, information literacy, and technological competency. FYS classes re small to emphasize open discussion and experiential learning within the context of the theme of the seminar course. FYS is also the home of the Ramapo Summer Reading Program; all first-year students read the same book and discuss and write about it in their seminars. FYS encourages new students to participate in a community of learners, to strengthen their critical thinking skills, and to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
Peers
Point Person: Director of Student Success
Lead Unit: Center for Student Success
Date: Fall Semester
Description: As an added resource for first-year students, each section of First-Year Seminar (FYS) will have a peer facilitator. This upper-level student will attend the FYS class and assist the instructor with the academic topics covered in this seminar. He or she will serve as a discussion leader on issues that pertain to students’ personal and social development and will also facilitate weekly discussions on the class readings. The peer facilitator will be the students’ mentor and will be available to students to provide guidance on navigating the different personal and social hurdles that students may encounter in the first year at Ramapo. Peer facilitators play an essential role in each FYS class ensuring that first-year students have guidance from a more experienced student.
Student Involvement Fair
Point Person: Eddie Seavers
Lead Unit: Center for Student Involvement
Date: September and January
Description: All student clubs/organizations/sororities/fraternities will be invited to have tables showcasing their organizations. The Student Involvement Fair is an opportunity for student clubs and organizations to present information about their organizations. Participating organizations staff tables where they display information, answer questions, and sign up interested students. The Student Involvement Fair is a means for all students, and in particular new students, to find out about the wide variety of student clubs and organizations that Ramapo offers. The Student Involvement Fair typically occurs during the second week of each semester. During the fall semester, it is held outside the Student Center (inside the Student Center during inclement weather). During the spring semester, it is held inside the Student Center.
Advising
Point Person: Michelle Johnson
Lead Unit: Center for Student Success
Date: throughout the academic year
Description: The Center for Student Success oversees a comprehensive academic advisement team comprised of faculty and staff who interact in an intentional manner with our diverse student population. Faculty and professional advisors assist students with identifying, clarifying and accomplishing their academic, experiential and civic engagement goals through the College’s mission to educate global, engaged citizens through our rich liberal arts tradition. All first-year students are assigned a Professional Advisor in the Center for Student Success and the Advisor visits every First-Year Seminar (FYS). Professional Advisors are responsible for teaching students about the Ramapo College curriculum, the academic advisement process, the registration procedures and the Four-Year Plan in FYS.
First-Year Career Awareness
Point Person: Beth Ricca
Lead Unit: Cahill Career Development Center
Date: Throughout the first year
Description: Introduction to the Career Development Center, career programs, resources and the Archway during FYS. Classroom visits will be coordinated through Peers and conducted by professional career advisors. In the spring semester, school specific career information sheets will be distributed by the Center for Student Success followed by personal emails from career advisors to students following their advising appointments.
Spring Peer Reunion
Point Person: Tracey Pastorini
Lead Unit: Center for Student Success
Date: February
Description: The Spring Peer Reunion Dinner is open to all first-year students and is led by Student Success. Peer Facilitators from the fall semester are invited to attend and support the dinner. The Reunion Dinner is aimed at reconnecting the first-year students with their upper class mentors and allowing students the opportunity to mingle and network with each other. This progressive style dinner features activities led by the Peer Facilitator Interns and returning Peer Facilitators at each stage to help students explore more about themselves, their peers, and the campus.
World Expo
Point Person: Ben Levy
Lead Unit: Roukema Center for International Education
Date: April
Description: This celebratory event will highlight all regions of the world through a variety of activities; music, dance, art, workshops, lectures, and so much more. The all-campus event will acknowledge the exciting international activities the College community is involved with through study abroad, international research, service-learning and co-curricular programs.
FYE End of Year Event: Admit One to the Sophomore Year
Point Person: Meghan Gregory
Lead Unit: Center for Student Success
Date: April
Description: To bookend the Seniors only dinner that occurs it with be a first-year only dinner in the Pavilion dining hall. It will have a movie premier theme including a slide show of photos provided by the students and yearly activities. A DJ will be playing in the dining hall. Flyers and information about the sophomore year programming will be distributed. Members of the SYE Board will also be present to mingle with the students to discuss wants and needs in the upcoming year. In the trustees pavilion lobby and rooms there will be dessert, resource tables, activity booths and interactive stations reflecting on the past year to future plans.