Syracuse University’s Fast Forward program will have a two-day retreat on Thursday and Friday at the Goldstein Student Center on South Campus for its Undergraduate Excellence Working Group.

The purpose of the retreat is so that the members of the Undergraduate Excellence Working Group can form recommendations for SU based on all of the information gathered throughout the last semester, said Ralph Zito, co-chair of the working group. The group will meet from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. both Thursday and Friday.

The first day of the retreat will consist of meetings between members in the morning and two different two-hour guest speaker discussions. About a dozen students, faculty and staff have been invited as guests for these discussions. The second day will mainly involve discussions about recommendations, ending with a final group meeting, said Zito, who is a professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. During the retreat, each of the seven Fast Forward working groups will be asked to form five to seven recommendations for the university.

“The retreat will be a way of testing and refining the recommendations,” Zito said. “I’m very impressed with the quality and hours of work that have gone into this. Everyone involved is so dedicated to the undergraduate experience.”

The undergraduate excellence program met weekly throughout the fall semester to plan for the retreat, spending a majority of their time gathering information and putting together their findings, said Lois Agnew, associate professor of writing and rhetoric and writing program director and chair.

“During our meetings, we gathered information from our constituents to see what we’ve learned at that point and where we can further develop our recommendations,” Agnew said.

The Undergraduate Excellence Working Group collaborated with the Parents Office and students to send surveys and questionnaires in order to compare experiences across the different schools and colleges within the university, Zito said.

For about the next month after the retreat, the working group will be gathering and condensing all of the recommendations into a final report to present to university officials, Zito said.

“The co-chairs of each working group will be taking the lead on writing the final report, making it as inclusive as possible,” Zito said.

After the final report has been submitted, the Undergraduate Excellence Working Group will be receiving commentary on it and meetings will be held in order to make any changes or adjustments needed, Zito said.

“The final report is just the first of many steps to come in the process toward a better university,” he said.

Goldstein Student Center was chosen as the location because of its close proximity to main campus, which increases people’s ability to contribute in the retreat, Zito said.

“A variety of students, faculty and staff will be participating in the retreat,” he said. “It should be a healthy mix of experience, expertise and opinion so we can accurately test the recommendations.”

Steven Pincus, a senior entrepreneur and emerging enterprises, management and marketing management triple major, has never been involved with the Undergraduate Excellence Working Group before, but he was selected among others to better represent all of SU’s different schools and colleges.

“I think incorporating undergraduate opinions is the best way to go,” Pincus said. “For me, participating in this is not really personal. I view it more as giving back to the university after three and a half years.”

Published on January 15, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann