Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention

Designing Transitional Programs to Meet the Needs of Multi-Ethnic First-Year Students

Daniel P. Nadler

Michael T. Miller

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jcotr.v6i2.2489

Keywords: Transitional programs, multi-ethnic, first-year, students, CAS Standards for New Student Orientation, African-American, Asian, Asian-American, Hispanic, assessment

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Abstract

Colleges and universities often rely on transitional programs to convey a sense of institutional expectations to new students. These programs, however, are often defined and created from a perspective of history and tradition, and do not necessarily reflect the increasingly diverse college student population. Using the "CAS Standards for New Student Orientation," a student orientation program was reviewed with special attention to multi-ethnic student perceptions of the goals outlined in the standards. Using two years of data collection, the findings suggest that multi-ethnic students are more satisfied with the orientation program than are Caucasian students as measured by the CAS Standards.