Ad Hoc Bridge Program Implementation Committee: 2013–15
September 2014
Members: Lily Copenagle, Annie Downey, Mary James*, Albyn Jones, Laura Leibman, Julie Maxfield, Pancho Savery
Charge: to create a pilot bridge program for one or two years, beginning January of 2015, and to devise mechanisms for assessing the program and deciding whether to continue with that or a similar program. The committee should consult the work of the Strategic planning groups E (pp.4-5) and J (pp.8-12).
E recommended (p.4) that, “rather than a summer bridge program, [Reed] establish a remedial program for students in January or in the last half of the fall semester. “With positive feedback from other groups on campus, we propose that Reed offer elective, non-credit remedial courses during January break on various topics, such as study skills, writing, algebra, and science laboratory skills. Students with academic weaknesses would be so identified by their professors at the 4- and 8-week grading periods. We envision a clickable box on IRIS for sending such a message to the student, the adviser, and Student Services. These students would be strongly encouraged to take advantage of the extra help, and other students could elect to participate in those courses on their own. Both staff and faculty could teach these courses, provided some incentive and a feasible schedule. Since students presumably want to stay and thrive at Reed, they would hopefully be willing to engage in this extra work. The ten-day Paideia period is too short for acquiring the necessary skills, so we envision a three-week period. The students would be aware of this opportunity (and need) early in the fall semester, in time to make the necessary adjustments in their January plans.”
Group J, in concert with Group E, explored this idea in much greater detail in pp.8-12 of their report, but their recommendation is the same: “We have concluded that Reed students would likely be well served by a bridge program that combines a multiple-week intensive January term session with a variety of follow-up academic skill workshops offered throughout the academic year.” Group J reviewed programs at other schools, and considered how it might work from many angles.
Faculty who have shown a strong interest in implementing this bridge program in the past, and so might constitute a good group to pick the brains of or draw on for staffing, include: Kris Anderson, Ann Delehanty, Wally Englert, Margot Minardi, Jeff Parker, Jerry Shurman, Irena Swanson. In addition, the following have expressed interest in bridge programming more generally include: Michael Breen, Mark Burford, Libby Drumm, Ariadna Garcia-Bryce, Arthur Glasfeld, Marat Grinberg, Maureen Harkin, Alex Hrycak, Robert Knapp, Chris Koski, Lena Lencek, Tamara Metz, Luc Monnin, Hyong Rhew, Suzy Renn, Sonia Sabnis, Marc Schneiberg.