For more than 20 years, the mission of FSP has been to provide incoming freshmen with tools to facilitate a successful transition into college life.

History of the Thomas B. Day Freshman Success Program (FSP) at SDSU

Research has shown that many freshman students entering major universities find the transition from high school to college more than difficult--what they experience is culture shock.

In 1985, the campuses of the CSU were asked by the Chancellor to submit a proposal for a retention program which would serve incoming freshmen. SDSU’s proposal was funded and the first version of the freshman retention program began in fall 1985. The program involved the close collaboration of Academic Skills, EOP, academic departments, and various campus agencies.

Recognizing the need of freshman students to experience an introduction to the university and its values, attitudes, and methods, encouraged the development of a one-unit introduction to the academic experience that would involve professors from many disciplines teaching small discussion sessions—University Seminar (GEN S 100). The course has proven advantageous to students, faculty, and the campus community. For students, the advantages have included forming mentoring relationships with faculty, developing an understanding of the mission and methods of the university, and learning about the opportunities and services available to students. For faculty, the program has offered the opportunity to mentor freshmen, to make a contribution to the university, and to increase their awareness of today's generation of entering students--their academic strengths and weaknesses, their diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and their ways of coping with the kinds of pressures they encounter in the university.

The development of FSP Learning Communities, where students take the same courses with each other, was an important innovation. Some of the sets of classes that have been linked together included: sociology, anthropology, history, geography, Chicano/a Studies, religious studies, political science, speech communication, chemistry, psychology, philosophy, economics, and writing.

Each learning community also included a one-unit supplemental instruction course with an overall objective to teach transferable learning skills, using the content and methods of the GE discipline. The course is taught by a graduate student in the GE discipline who is selected by the GE department.

The program was named one of three model programs in the state, and during ILE's second and third years, the Chancellor's outside evaluation team, Far West Laboratory, conducted site visits and longitudinal studies, and published their case study of the SDSU ILE program in, "Promising Practices for Minority Retention and Achievement: Case Studies of Summer Bridge and Intensive Learning Experience Programs (1988).

In fall 1990 additional departments and faculty became involved in the FSP. Plans were drawn up to expand FSP and combine it with a new project designed by the Student Resource Center: the Living/Learning Center (1992) at Maya Hall, in which incoming freshmen lived together and participated in study groups, tutoring, computer instruction, and personal growth activities. The idea was to create a small-college atmosphere within the larger university context.

With a generous endowment from the Bernard and Doris Lipinsky family, the Thomas B. Day Freshman Success Program (so named in honor of the immediate past-president of SDSU as requested by the Lipinskys) was formally inaugurated in 1995. In 1998 FSP found a permanent home in the Office of Undergraduate Studies.

In fall 1996 The Living-Learning Center expanded to include a second residence hall, Olmeca, which is Maya Hall’s neighbor. Further expansion continued and there are now several living and learning options with the SDSU Housing division.

While names, faces, and programs may change, FSP remains committed to offering incoming freshmen the opportunity to explore learning community options thereby intensifying their focus on the college experience and their hopes and aspirations for their future.