The UW Board of Trustees met on Thursday, September 15, to discuss a wide variety of topics, including a report on the successes and failures of Saddle Up, the new mandatory student introduction program.
In total 1,403 first-time, first-year students or transfer students participated in the program, as well as 161 student staff who helped run the program.
The Office of Student Success and Graduation and ASUW Student Government both conducted assessments and surveys to gauge how these students felt about the program.
“We have really dug deep this first year knowing that we have a lot of room for growth, as this is Saddle Up’s first time ever on campus,” Nycole Courtney, Dean of Student Success and Graduation, said during the discussion.
One piece of feedback was that the scheduling needs to be adjusted – many students felt rushed during move-in, which was only one day long, and felt that there was little free time during the week.
The academic coursework of Saddle Up also was discussed.
“One example of an area where we know that we need to make some tweaks is that there was some lack of clarity and expectations among the faculty who actually taught the academic classes, which is the core of Saddle Up, in terms of what the expectations are,” Kevin Carman, UW Provost, said.
“We really wanted them to simulate a real class with real lectures and real homework and real examples of exams, and that didn’t happen consistently. We had a very good discussion and debrief with faculty and plan on providing more clarity and making sure that academic experience is what we’re looking for,” Carman said.
Vice President for Student Affairs Kim Chestnut shared some highlights of the program that they saw, including that student staff appreciated the increased exposure to campus and that 360 Pell Grant eligible students had the $200 Saddle Up fee waived.
Chestnut also discussed outcomes from surveys on how well Saddle Up fulfilled its four main learning objectives, which she highlighted were broadly positive.
Sean Walker, a UW freshman from Sheridan who participated in the program, came to speak to the Board as part of the administration’s presentation. “I personally had an overall positive experience with Saddle Up,” he said.
Despite this, the feedback on Saddle Up was not uniformly positive.
“Overall students who participated in Saddle Up are in support of the mission of the program but had substantial issues with how that mission translated into programming and scheduling,” Allison Brown, ASUW President, said during the discussion.
Brown noted that 67.6% of students felt that Saddle Up either didn’t or only somewhat met its four primary learning objectives.
“Through extensive qualitative data that I also shared, students reported not having enough time to eat, feeling overwhelmed by the daily expectations, and not gaining any helpful skills from the required courses,” said Brown. “Students also mentioned that the information covered could be repetitive and did not reflect what they wanted from the program in terms of preparing for their first college semester.”
In response to Brown’s comments, Carman noted that it was intended to be a full day of programming that prepares students for a semester of college courses, and that he was not prepared to say exactly what they were going to change because data analysis was ongoing. Carman noted that there would be a full and detailed report at the November Board of Trustees meeting.
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