A faculty workshop aimed at preparing instructors to help college freshmen adapt socially and academically is a new addition to NIU’s four-year-old orientation program.

The College of Professional Studies will offer a “Freshmen Year Experience Workshop” March 23 at the Woodstock Conference Center. Faculty who attend fulfill the requirement to teach the NIU course Intra Professional Studies 101: Orientation to Professional Studies.

Sandra Kuchynka, academic counselor in NIU’s College of Professional Studies, said the workshop’s purpose is for “faculty to learn what the freshmen year experience at NIU is like.”

Daniel House, a research associate with NIU’s Institutional Research office, said data indicates “students who take the course earn higher grades and have higher persistence rates than students who do not take the course.”

It will be an opportunity for faculty to learn how freshmen and other students develop, Kuchynka said. Faculty also will be able to interact with others who have taught the course.

The faculty workshop will be limited to 30 people, with faculty from the College of Professional Studies having first priority. “Other faculty who wish to attend will be admitted on a first come first, serve basis,” Kuchynka said.

ichard Walker, an associate professor of military science who teaches ICPS 101, said he learned that “professors need to understand the goals and concerns of young people.” Instructors also need to be able to communicate with college-age students, he said.

Walker said the most important aspect of the class is that it introduces students to campus. “This class also gives freshmen an opportunity to get close relationships among their peers since enrollment in the class is limited to 20 students,” he said.

Students leave the class knowing they are not alone, and that there are people on campus who care, Walker said.

Kuchynka said NIU offered three sessions of ICPS 101 in fall 1989 and she would like to expand the course to five or six sessions. The workshop is coordinated and funded by the College of Professional Studies and the Provost’s Office, she said.