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Starting Anew...Saludos/Greeting from the Project Director Welcome back to another exciting semester at Cal State Fullerton. Bienvenidos al nuevo semestre. It is hard to believe that the 2005-2006 Academic Year is at its’ halfway mark. We are happy to report that during the break, our Title V external review came in with positive feedback; even so, we thought it was the perfect time to refocus our efforts and continue to improve upon our goals. With that said, we developed a NEW and IMPROVED ¿Qué Pasa? Newsletter. First, we would like to apologize for the delay in publishing the Newsletter, but feel that with this new layout, we can better inform faculty, staff and students about the efforts and programs created through Title V funding. Our Title V staff in working hard to make Cal State Fullerton the place “Where Learning is Preeminent” for all students. We hope that the NEW and IMPROVED Newsletter, published as a result of Title V funding, will allow everyone to gain a deeper understanding of our goals and objectives. We also hope that readers will understand that Title V is here to help ALL students on campus, regardless of their background. One major goal of the Grant is to increase recruitment and retention rates of ALL students majoring in science, math, engineering, and computer science. During the spring 2006 semester, we are focusing on tutoring and mentoring while also increasing data collection for these services. We would like to understand, more accurately, how to best direct the hours of availability and location of our efforts. To date, we have increased the number of tutors and mentors at the Math Tutoring Center, the Center for Academic Support in Engineering and Computer Science (formerly MESA Engineering Program), the University Learning Center, the Links Mentoring Programs, Freshman Programs, and in the Chicano Resource Center. Also we have developed a new support center called the Student Retention and Assessment Center (SRAC), which specifically serves students in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and College of Engineering and Computer Science. SRAC offers Peer Advisors, student committees, peer groups, tutoring services, and various incentives for getting involved with tutoring and mentoring. The number of students we are helping as a result of Title V funding is encouraging, but we want to reach out to more students. By offering additional services and support to students on campus, we hope to decrease the number of students on academic probation and ultimately increase the retention and graduations of all students. For our students, we want to instill the belief that they can succeed (si se puede), because we know they can. For more information on Title V programs, tutoring, and mentoring opportunities, please contact Gina Garcia, ginagarcia@fullerton.edu, or Victor M. Rojas Jr., vrojas@fullerton.edu.
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