Carolyn Bruder This is Me

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1. 1. www.theadvertiser.com

   www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbc - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/5/2007   Last Visited: 7/5/2007

   It's not a lofty goal, said Carolyn Bruder, UL's director of academic planning and faculty development.
   
   Selective admissions were phased in at universities, with the full implementation in fall 2005.The effect of the move will be seen in the first full selective admissions cohort - that 2005 class, Bruder said.
   
   "Because of selective admissions, we'll continue to go up," she said.
   
   The six-year graduation of rate of UL's students who began at UL in 2000 and finished at UL last fall was about 40 percent, Bruder said.She noted that the rate doesn't take into account those students who may have left the university and earned that degree at another institution within six years.
   
   Part of Clausen's plan calls for graduating more students while reducing the graduation rate from six years to five years.
   
   Now, there's extra money to help make that happen.The system will receive $103 million in new state dollars, and each university received 100 percent funding for the academic year this legislative session.
   
   "I think we're all walking around with stars in our eyes," Bruder said.
   ...
   I think the students will be very happy," Bruder said.
   
   Right now, the university is targeting bottleneck courses for freshmen and upper-level students.
   
   "We have six different orientations for freshmen," Bruder said."Often we had the most popular courses that would be gone by the third session because we didn't have available faculty to staff them."
   
   For freshmen and lower-division students, the university decided to add more courses in BSAT, economics, psychology, sociology, Spanish, theater and visual arts.The university plans to hire instructors to fill the teaching positions.
   
   For upper level students, the university is focusing on those "logjam" courses that prevent them from graduating on time, Bruder said.

2. 2. The Daily Advertiser - www.theadvertiser.com - Lafayette, LA

   www.acadiananow.com/apps/pbcs. - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/7/2006   Last Visited: 9/7/2006

   Part of the challenge that universities face when tackling retention and graduation rates is changing student behavior - especially the fact that many students work while trying to complete their degrees, said Carolyn Bruder, assistant vice president of academic affairs at UL.
   
   "Sixty five percent of our students self-report that they work more than 15 hours a week while going to school full-time," Bruder said.
   ...
   Since the university has moved to selective admissions, retention rates already have improved, Bruder said.
   
   Retention rates of freshmen into their sophomore year is about 73 percent, she said.
   
   "That is what it should be for public institutions with our kind of entering ACT requirements," Bruder said.
   ...
   Starting in the fall, the date that students can drop a course will be moved, Bruder said.
   
   "We're trying to make it more difficult to string yourself along in a course and drop it," Bruder said.
   
   This fall, the university also started another retention effort - a mentoring program for those students who are admitted by exception because they don't meet the academic requirements.
   
   "Partly what we're doing with the mentoring program is helping the students develop a connection with somebody else on campus," Bruder said.

3. 3. Graduation rates lag

   www.acadiananow.com/news/html/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/29/2004   Last Visited: 9/29/2004

   A task force will help bring consistency to the advising process, said Carolyn Bruder, head of UL Lafayette's academic planning and faculty development.While there are professional academic advisers who counsel students through their degree plans, faculty members are also tasked with the bulk of advising, she said.
   ...
   Bruder said some students are stuck in a "drop" mentality, padding their schedules with courses they're not committed to finishing.