LIFE, LESSONS

OSU advocates living-learning programs for student success

STILLWATER — Some 5,600 undergraduates will move into dorms today at Oklahoma State University, but only a few hundred will be housed in living-learning communities with peers who share a common interest or major.

“If I could have it my way, I’d like to have a living-learning community for every first-year student,” said Leon McClinton, OSU’s director of residential life.

If properly planned and executed, these programs can have a big impact on student success, McClinton said.

A new study conducted by OSU shows students who participated in the Freshmen in Transition (FIT) living-learning program returned to campus for their sophomore year

at a significantly higher rate than OSU freshmen overall.

FIT was implemented in 2000 to help students in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources transition into college. Approximately 100 students are in the program each year.

The study looked at program participants in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

“The retention rates for students who participated in the FIT program in both years were higher than those for students in the college and university as a whole,” McClinton said.

The first year, 94.5 percent of FIT students returned to OSU for their sophomore year. The rates for their peers in the college and the university were 83.2 percent and 81.1 percent, respectively.

The second-year retention rates were 87.5 percent, 84.1 percent and 80.8 percent.

McClinton said a lot of the credit goes to staff rapport.

“I’m a huge advocate for living-learning programs,” said McClinton, who came to OSU three years ago. The communities can be based on academics, interests or culture.

The newly renovated Parker Hall is now home to the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology’s freshman living-learning program. The college, which had three living-learning communities spread out

across campus, contributed $100,000 to the $2 million renovation project.

Now all 220 students will be housed in Parker Hall, which includes a new Student Excellence Center in the basement and next year will have a faculty-in-residence apartment, McClinton said.

“They hired upperclassmen to live in the building and serve as mentors, and the dean plans to drop in once a week to visit with students,” he said.

McClinton said the partnership between the academic side and the housing team is important for the success of livinglearning programs.

“It doesn’t have to be a building. It could be a floor or part of a floor,” he said.

The new Outdoor Adventure community has 10 students who will be working with OSU’s wellness center staff to plan weekend trips and earn certificates in things such as rock climbing and rafting, McClinton said.

Iba Hall, also newly renovated, will be home to two culturally based communities — Okstate F1rst for freshmen firstgeneration college students and Global Scholars for any OSU student with an interest in global cultures.

This is the third year for Okstate F1rst, but the first year that graduate assistants have been hired to work with the freshmen toward student success, McClinton said. Twenty students will participate in the program this year. Overall,

25 percent of OSU students are the first in their family to attend college, he said.

Home away from home

“The Oklahoma State campus is alive with activity as we welcome another outstanding

freshman class to the Cowboy family,” President Burns Hargis said. “We look forward to a fall semester full of academic and research excellence, exciting campus activities, and athletic success.”

One place freshmen won’t be living is Drummond

Hall — home for more than 28,000 OSU students over 53 years. It closed at the end of May 2018. Drummond Hall and companion Kerr Hall were built in 1965. Kerr Hall closed in 2016.

OSU strives to keep housing costs as affordable as possible to ensure access to higher education for everyone, McClinton said.

OSU’s 5,800 beds are about 99 percent occupied, but the number always drops off a little after school starts, he said.

The first day of classes is Monday.

[PHOTOS PROVIDED BY OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY] Christopher Fenton, of Overland Park, Kan., and Rylee Hunter, of Olathe, Kan., visit in the first-floor lounge of Iba Hall at Oklahoma State University. Iba Hall is home to two living-learning communities.

Oklahoma State University’s newly renovated Parker Hall includes this new Student Excellence Center in the basement. Students seen in the center are, from left, Christopher Fenton of Overland Park, Kan., Rylee Hunter of Olathe, Kan., Cole Egan of Flower Mound, Texas, Emily Whisman of Frisco, Texas, and Bailey James of Muskogee. The College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology has moved all its livinglearning communities into Parker Hall this year.