The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh communication studies professor and director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning is co-leading the development of the innovative redesign of general education requirements – the University Studies Program (USP).

The USP is innovative and aimed at being high-value and high-impact for students. And come fall 2013, students coming into and graduating from  UW Oshkosh will benefit from a different kind of general education. This summer, UW Oshkosh’s landmark USP earned another tremendous endorsement when it was awarded a three-year, more-than $400,000 UW System institutional grant – “Promoting Student Success through Curricular Reform.” It will help support USP development and implementation over the next three years.

“We’re reinventing how we teach first-year students, allowing our faculty and staff to try new things that will inspire their students and, in the long run, our entire community,” said Tracy Slagter, assistant professor of political science.

The USP didn’t just happen; the historic redesign of “gen eds,” as students call them, is an effort a long time in the making.

“The University Studies Program is the result of years of dedicated work by faculty committed to both increasing student retention and enhancing the quality of learning,” said Lane Earns, UW Oshkosh Provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Leading up to the launch of new classes and opportunities, though, comes much work by the faculty and staff members at UW Oshkosh, said Carleen Vande Zande, assistant vice chancellor for curricular affairs and student academic achievement.

In many ways, the key grant, which was approved in July, will help move the USP at UW Oshkosh along. General education requirements as a whole, until now, have not been redesigned in four decades so much behind-the-scenes planning is needed, Vande Zande said.

“This UW System grant affirms the value of all the work as well as the potential of this new program to positively impact student learning,” said Carrell.

According to Vande Zande, the grant will help UW Oshkosh do three things. First, it will provide opportunities for professional development of faculty, a very important part of the process. The grant will also help align existing academic and student support services with the new USP curriculum and it will allow for the development of tools to monitor student success.

“This grant really allows us to do the right things in the right ways to make this successful,” said Vande Zande. “I think it shows that the UW System believes in us and of the good ideas of our faculty and how they want to educated students for the 21st Century.”

As part of the USP, students will explore “signature questions” through what are called “Quest” classes. The USP connects learning experiences to three key questions that directly tie into the University’s established Essential Learning Outcomes: “How do people understand and create a more sustainable world?” “How do people understand and engage in community life?” and “How do people understand and bridge cultural differences?”

Quest classes are now in the development phase by UW Oshkosh faculty. Professional development as it relates to the new courses is also underway. In October, the University will welcome dozens of nonprofit organizations and agencies from throughout Northeastern Wisconsin to campus for the Provost’s Teaching and Learning Summit to learn more about how they’ll benefit from the coming waves of student civic-engagement and service-learning projects — a major component of the USP.

“Our Quest courses are the first classes new students will take at UW Oshkosh and we’re creating them mostly from scratch,” said Slagter. “Faculty and staff have been hard at work developing courses that give students foundational knowledge and skills and that pique their intellectual curiosity and make them eager to learn more.”

Beyond the revamp of classes, the USP will provide students with learning communities and peer mentors while simultaneously pushing them out into the community to be active and engaged citizens, which Vande Zande calls “authentic and situational learning.”

As the fall 2013 semester grows nearer, the UW Oshkosh teaching community continues to work on curricular changes, while other departments and campus services also organize themselves for the changes the USP will bring.

“As we move forward into implementation, all faculty, staff and students will need to step up and commit themselves to additional investments of time and intellectual energy,” said Earns. “Our goals are lofty, and our assessment plan will ultimately reveal the impact of this program not only in retention and graduation rates, but in the quality of the educational experience at UW Oshkosh.”

Learn more:

• University Studies Program

To mark the anniversary, the University community is invited to enjoy a slice of cake in the Reeve Memorial Union Concourse from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Writing Center staff will be joined by members of the Oshkosh Gaming Society, who will offer passersby the opportunity to join in at three tables of games.

The Writing Center opened its doors on Sept.17, 1977, to work with students enrolled in the state-mandated remedial English course. Staff members shared office space in the basement of Radford Hall with the Advance-Titan.

Since then, the Writing Center has grown to serve thousands of students in a range of programs and disciplines. In 2010, the center relocated to the newly renovated and expanded Student Success Center (formerly Elmwood Commons).

“The Writing Center is student-centered and, in many ways, student-run,” said Crystal Mueller, center director. “After an intensive training period, students who work in the center not only help their peers succeed at the University but also model skills and strategies that students can use in their careers and even personal lives after graduation.”

The center has thrived, tripling the annual number of visits with student writers, she said. Five Chancellor’s Award for Excellence Award winners in the past four years have been Writing Center student employees.

Each year, the Writing Center works with writers Student writers from about 55 different departments in about 450 different classes.

“More than ever, students are asked to write assignments for classes, and the Writing Center works to help them succeed. In addition, about 20 percent of the writing students bring to the Writing Center is not for a class, such as resumes, applications and personal writing,” Mueller said.

UWO student Arielle Smith, a current writing consultant and writing fellow, said her work with the center has made her a more precise and capable writer.

“I have so much more insight into the writing process, and I have learned much from simply talking with the writers we work with,” she said. “We do valuable work with students, and they keep coming back. This week alone I had four students reschedule appointments with me specifically. When students return, we can see exactly how we have helped them, and that is the best part. We are helping students—not just to better a single assignment—but to better themselves as writers.”

Mueller said UW Oshkosh  graduates who were employed as writing consultants frequently report that their work at the center was one of the most significant experiences they had at UW Oshkosh.

“Through their positions of intellectual leadership, they gained the satisfaction of helping their classmates learn to improve their own skills, and they gained confidence, attitudes and skills that have carried well beyond their University experience,” she said.

Today, Writing Center alumni work for nonprofit organizations like the Christine Ann Center and publications like Marie Claire magazine. Others have taught or currently teach in other countries, such as Japan, Nicaragua and Taiwan.

Writing Center staff members look forward to continuing and expanding their support of writers and have begun online consulting for online/hybrid and distance education students, Mueller said. They partner with other departments and areas on campus, such as offering support to the Intensive English Program through the Office of International Education. They also have begun to strategize support for the new University Studies Program, beginning in fall 2013.

• Did you work in the Writing Center? Did you visit the Writing Center? We’d love to hear from you. Share your memories by writing to wcenter@uwosh.edu.