Summer 2008 — Vol. 61, No. 3

Part of the Clemson DNA

By James F. Barker

The story in this issue about Clemson’s FIRST Program is near and dear to my heart.

Like so many Clemson alumni, I was the first in my family to go to college. Two brothers followed in my footsteps, and life for everyone in my extended family is better today because of that opportunity.

Also, like some of our FIRST students, I came to Clemson for a summer before beginning my freshman year. It was a long and winding road, literally and metaphorically, from the hills of eastern Tennessee to the campus “where the Blue Ridge yawns its greatness.”

That summer experience tested my motivation and helped me get comfortable with the idea of college. I learned my way around. I shook off my doubts and nerves and fears, and arrived that fall much more confident and ready to get to work.

My own two sons grew up with very different expectations. They simply assumed that college lay ahead for them. They are more typical of the students we enroll today, but I am proud that a significant percentage of our students are “first generation” like me. Clemson is still accessible and must remain accessible.

First-generation students

Efforts such as the National Science Foundation-sponsored FIRST Program — with its goal to increase graduates in science, technology and math — offers coaching, mentoring and a built-in support network to first-generation Clemson students in those majors.

We will enroll more than 300 first-generation freshmen in these disciplines alone this fall, more than 10 percent of the freshman class. I will follow their progress with great interest.

I hope we will have the resources to continue the program after the NSF grant expires. We would love to see it expanded to every first-generation student at Clemson.

Studies show that first-generation students lack what is known as “college knowledge.” They need extra help to get ready for college-level academic work, to navigate the financial aid and admissions process, and to make a successful transition once they arrive on campus.

Intervention programs must begin in middle school or earlier. Unless children can picture themselves going to college and succeeding in a career, they will not take the rigorous courses they need in high school, especially advanced math and science.

Many first-generation students begin higher education at a community college, with plans to transfer. So programs aimed at first-generation students need to include transfer students, too. We expect transfer enrollment to increase over the next few years.

Clemson is tackling these multiple challenges in multiple ways. In addition to the FIRST Program, which is for accepted Clemson students only, efforts include:

• Emerging Scholars targets freshmen from six S.C. high schools with the highest family poverty rates. They come to Clemson for three summers and receive academic support throughout the school year. Some Emerging Scholars later enroll at Clemson, but others do not. The goal is to ensure that they enroll in college somewhere.
• SC LIFE sponsors life sciences education for middle and high school students and their teachers. Enrichment opportunities include laboratory field trips and a summer program for research interns. It is supported by $5.4 million in awards since 1998 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• This summer, we offered three special orientation sessions for transfer students. A new Transfer Council within Student Government will address the specific needs of this group. One of the council’s first activities will be a mentoring program that pairs upperclass transfer students with incoming transfers.
• The Academic Success Center offers all Clemson undergraduates academic counseling and coaching, tutoring, supplemental instruction and training in study skills and time management. Its goals are to increase student success and graduation rates.

Academic Success Center

If I could offer parents of incoming students only one piece of advice this summer it would be: Make sure your student knows about the Academic Success Center. (My top tip to students is: “Make sure you never miss a class!”)

We broke ground in June for a new home for the center — between the Brooks Center and the Cooper Library — which will be known as the Class of 1956 Academic Success Center. The class has raised $2.7 million to name the new building.

The Class of 1956 was at the forefront of Clemson’s change from an all-male, military college to a coed, civilian institution. Today, we are transitioning again. Clemson is becoming one of the nation’s best public research universities, but we have promised to bring our students along on the journey.

Why do we place such emphasis on increasing academic opportunity and support for all students, including “first-generation” students?

Because it is the right thing to do. Because it is in line with Clemson’s traditional mission. Because it is a part of our DNA. And because it is in our collective best interest to do it.

Education, education, education

I spoke recently to a Greenville Chamber gathering about the “Greenville Regional Economic Scorecard.” This study was commissioned by the chamber and written by Clemson faculty members led by David Barkley and Mark Henry.

I told these business leaders: When I read the “Scorecard” report, I see three needs — education, education, education. In other words, education at every level.

In relation to peer regions, Upstate South Carolina shows real strength in innovation activity and entrepreneurial environment. Clemson University is a big part of the reason.

Where the Upstate and South Carolina are relatively weak — in general labor force education and “knowledge worker” occupations — education is both the problem and the solution. Clemson must help here, too.

We simply need better schools, more high school graduates and more college graduates to meet the needs of tomorrow’s economy. And we cannot afford to leave anyone behind.