Bragging Rights & Basic Truths

A national survey offers a closer look at FIU undergraduates and their experiences at the university. FIU Magazine examines the data in its latest cover story.

By Deborah O’Neil MA ’09

Sophomore Donna Duggins scans her planner for an opening as she settles in for a one-hour commute to Biscayne Bay Campus on the Golden Panther Express. The well-worn pages of her appointment book are crowded with notes:

Monday: Test 10 a.m.

Tuesday: Work 9 a.m. to 6 p.m

Wednesday: Chapters on media and the justice system

Thursday: Work 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Friday: Meet classmates at BBC to work on group project 

The Honors College public relations major took 18 credits in the spring while working full time at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Somewhere in her schedule she needs to carve out 10 hours for community service required by the Honors College. Every time a professor mentions an assignment, test, anything, she pulls out her planner. Sometimes, she goes to her boss with planner in hand to figure out her schedule.

It’s a balancing act Duggins has down to a science, and one that represents the experiences of many FIU students. Long hours of commuting. Tough academic demands. Full-time job. Lack of free time.

Last year, FIU’s academic leaders set out to learn more about the lives of FIU students and their educational experience by participating in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). This was the third time FIU took part in the survey, with 1,485 freshmen and 1,865 seniors participating. Their responses are compared to those of more than 300,000 students at 564 universities around the country.

“We have so many myths about our students, things that might have been true 30 years ago,” said Vice Provost Irma Becerra-Fernandez, who analyzed the results. “We really wanted to know, ‘Who are our students?’”

They look a lot like Donna Duggins. Young, full-time students who live at home and have worked harder than they thought they could in order to succeed in college. The survey revealed that FIU is more of a typical college campus than commonly believed, with most students under age 24 and most attending full time.

That’s a change from FIU’s origins. Becerra-Fernandez, who earned her Ph.D. at FIU in 1994, remembers when FIU served an older population.

“To me it is a palpable difference between the institution that I started with and the one it is now,” she said. “Upper classmen back then were already working and were going to FIU part time. But because we started that way, people think we are still that way.”

The results give FIU plenty of reasons to be proud, while also shedding light on areas where FIU falls below the national average.

The good news is that 85 percent of the students said their entire educational experience at FIU is excellent or good. Three-quarters of seniors reported that they would attend FIU again. FIU faculty get high marks for being available, helpful and sympathetic.

Information like this amounts to a treasure trove for academic administrators. It informs the creation of academic policy and helps the university prioritize needs.

“We are looking carefully at the areas where we need to improve and we are taking action,” Becerra-Fernandez said.

Improving writing and advising

Two areas that FIU is assessing are writing and academic advising. The survey shows that students were below the national average on preparing two or more drafts of a paper before turning it in. In addition, FIU students write fewer papers overall.

The results aren’t a surprise given class sizes at FIU, said Paula Gillespie, director of FIU’s Center for Excellence in Writing. Bigger classes generally mean fewer writing assignments and more multiple-choice exams. This summer, the university began hiring more instructors who can teach writing within each academic discipline, said Becerra-Fernandez.

Beyond that, she said, FIU needs to explore technology and peer-review programs that can assist faculty and students. The university has formed a task force that is preparing a report on how FIU can improve writing outcomes.

“We are going to be very creative,” she said. “Our students need to be able to learn how to effectively put their thoughts into written communication.”

The Writing Center is initiating a new Writing Fellows program that trains undergraduates to be writing tutors. Those tutors are assigned to classes where they work with students on writing assignments before they are turned in to the professor.

“The writing fellows work with the faculty so they know the goal of the paper,” Gillespie said. “They are helping students not only to write better papers, but helping them to master material.”

In recent years, FIU has been investing in its academic advising services. In the survey, only 20 percent of FIU seniors rated their academic advising as excellent, well below the national average of 32 percent.

A major initiative is expected to improve advising. All students will be required to declare a major upon admission starting in Fall 2012, a change that will place students in an academic home earlier. Students will work with advisors in their major from day one to stay on track, said Undergraduate Education Dean Douglas Robertson.

Currently, students must declare a major once they reach 60 credits, typically at the end of their second year.

“Data show that if you find an academic home that coincides with your vision of what you want to do or where you want to go, and FIU provides a clear path along the way, you tend to get there,” Robertson said. “Students will feel a sense of being informed and directed and supported all the time.”

Understanding diverse perspectives

FIU students stood out against the national average when it comes to diversity. The responses reveal that meaningful diversity experiences are embedded into the entire educational experience at FIU, from social encounters to classroom assignments.

“Diversity here is not only about ethnicity, but socio-economic diversity and diversity in terms of perspective,” said Becerra-Fernandez. “It’s wonderful that we rank high in diversity.”

Some 65 percent of seniors said they often have serious conversations with students of different races or ethnicities. By comparison, 55 percent of seniors nationally do so. The results are similar for freshmen who were asked how often they have serious conversations with students who have very different religious beliefs, political opinions or personal values. Sixty-four percent of FIU freshmen said very often or often compared with 55 percent of freshmen nationally.

“The university strives to create opportunities for dialogue about diversity and opportunities to state that as a very clear code of expectations,”  Vice President of Student Affairs Rosa Jones said. “The message is clearly articulated that the university celebrates diversity. It’s not something that happens by osmosis.”

Incoming freshmen get the message at Panther Camp, a three-day Student Affairs orientation program that challenges students to examine their values and consider new perspectives.

Through the Global Learning initiative, all undergraduates are taking courses that help them develop global awareness, a global perspective, and an attitude of global engagement. The courses are complemented with co-curricular activities such as Diversity Week, which this year had programs on immigration, religion, gender issues, racial justice and disabilities.

Building campus life

With only 13 percent of students living on campus, FIU remains a commuter school. That’s typical for an urban university in a major city. However, FIU students spend more hours on the road than students around the country. They also work more and spend more time taking care of family.

All of this makes it difficult to engage students in campus life. Nearly 85 percent of FIU freshmen and seniors surveyed spend less than five hours a week participating in co-curricular activities.

Consider the schedule Donna Duggins kept all spring. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the South Miami resident drove her 1997 Nissan Sentra to MMC, attended one class, and then hopped on the shuttle to BBC for two more classes. Hours clocked in traffic: 3. Hours in class: 4.5.

On Fridays, Duggins spent more time commuting than in class. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays were spent working.

“I really like FIU,” said Duggins, “I just wish I had more time for campus life because I’m proud to be a Panther.”

Helping students like Duggins have a well-rounded college experience is a continual challenge, said Jones.

“We want to have the students engaged because we know the data shows the students who are engaged tend to be much more persistent and graduate,” she said. “We also know that by being engaged they have a greater likelihood of being involved in things that will make them a more holistic person – music, art, athletics – things they discover here.”

One solution is to offer more student housing. FIU will be doubling the number of on-campus residences in the next 10 years to 6,000 beds. Even then, less than 20 percent of students will live on campus.

Jones says the university has to be innovative about providing nearby off-campus housing. “In many urban institutions, there are no boundaries,” she said. “The question this raises is what other kinds of partnerships do we develop in terms of housing?”

Other solutions come through creative programming. For instance, says Jones, Students Affairs is decentralizing programs so that activities can take place in the academic buildings where students take classes. They have also modified the hours of student activities.

“A lot of programs are in the evenings,” she said. “If you come in on a Thursday evening our students start arriving at 8 or 9 p.m. and are here until midnight. So many of them are working, but they can come after work.”

Offering more on-campus jobs provides still more opportunities to help students. FIU is making strides in on-campus employment.

Last spring, FIU and Florida Power & Light opened an on-campus call center that employs FIU students.

“One of the best things is working on campus, unlike other jobs where you have to sacrifice your school schedule in order to go to work,” said FIU student Manuel Niño, an FPL customer care center representative.

Duggins works to pay her bills – car insurance, phone, clothing. She doesn’t want to ask her parents for money. Even with her full-time job, she has maintained a 3.78 GPA. She keeps her eye on her goal – graduating – as she sticks to the hour-by-hour plans she has spelled out in her pink and green planner with the word “DREAM” drawn across it.

Sissi Aguila ’99, MA ’08, and Martin Haro ’05 contributed to this story.