UCCS Retention Initiatives

Academic Skill Development Workshops: The Office of First Year Experience offers free academic skill development workshops throughout the semester. Topics include time management and study skills, learning styles, test-taking, note-taking, and more. If you would like to schedule a workshop for your students, please contact Ellen Pettijohn at 719-255-7551.

Early Alert Program: Every semester, the Office of First Year Experience collaborates with faculty who teach 1000 and 2000 level courses to identify students who are not doing well in their classes due to poor academic performance, lack of attendance, and/or personal issues. When students show up in our system, we connect them with an academic coach to help them get back on track.

Faculty/Staff Mentoring Program: The Office of First Year Experience and the Multicultural Office for Student Access, Inclusiveness, and Community (M.O.S.A.I.C.) have partnered with faculty and staff to provide mentorship to freshmen and first-year transfer students, as well as with students from diverse backgrounds. If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please contact Anthony Cordova at 719-255-3040.

F.A.M.E. First-Years Achieving Marks of Excellence: The Office of First Year Experience and the UCCS Peer Mentor Club co-sponsor this event, which is held annually during the month of February. This event recognizes freshmen and transfer students who earn a 3.25 grade point average or higher their first semester at UCCS.

Freshman Seminar: Freshman Seminar (ID 1010) is an innovative, three credit, multidisciplinary course that helps students succeed by building relationships with faculty and other students, and integrating into academic life. For more information about Freshman Seminar, please contact Dr. Constance Staley at 719-255-4123.

Learning Communities: First year students in pre-professional majors (pre-business, pre-nursing, and pre-engineering) have the opportunity to participate in a learning community (aka: Zones). Students in the Zones take two or more linked courses together along with a freshman seminar. Students who participate in a Zone earn higher grades than students who do not participate.

Transfer Student Conference: At the beginning of the fall and spring semesters, the Office of First Year Experience collaborates with faculty and several of the student support offices on campus to host a conference designed specifically for transfer students. During the conference, transfer students have lunch with faculty in their majors and attend a variety of helpful breakout sessions.

UCCS Peer Mentor Club: The UCCS Peer Mentor Club is a recognized student club at UCCS. Peer Mentors help guide freshmen and first year transfer students through their first year at UCCS. Peer Mentors help students get connected to academic resources, encourage students to get involved on campus, and help student transition to UCCS.

We know that there are many more retention initiatives taking place at UCCS, both
departmentally and campus-wide. We want to know what you are doing to help retain our students,
please contact us at fye@uccs.edu to keep us up-to-date.