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In coordination with the project launched in spring 2017, the Office of Undergraduate Education is partnering with the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to embark on the Foundations of Excellence (FoE) initiative, a campuswide effort to evaluate the first-year undergraduate experience.

FoE is a process, provided and guided by the , for engaging universities in a voluntary, inclusive self-study; improvement planning; and change-implementation process focused on the entirety of the first-year college experience. 

The self-study is expected to provide a stimulating, institution-wide experience that brings together multiple staff, faculty and student viewpoints and leads to substantive institutional change and improved student outcomes. The self-study portion of the process will be completed over the current academic year by nine committees with faculty, staff and students from across campus.

Fall semester will focus on gathering information from institutional research and from two surveys, one of which will be administered to campus faculty and staff in late September. The second will be administered to new first-year students toward the end of the semester.

Spring semester will focus on producing individual committee reports and then integrating those into a single document with a set of recommendations.

The entire campus community is invited to attend an open forum describing the Foundations of Excellence initiative, how to become involved and to answer any questions. Sessions are scheduled Sept. 19 and 20.