| On rather warm day in May 1970 on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia, students stormed the administration building and locked President Thomas Jones in his office hours. But while they were protesting, he was thinking: “Why does it have to be like this?” Jones recognized that the academy had failed its students in some fundamental way. Just a little more than two years later, the first group of entering college students signed up for a new course, University 101, and international movement to improve the educational experiences of first-year college students was born.
Through the new course, Jones hoped to bond students to the institution, but he also hoped to transform the way undergraduate students were taught. This was a mission embraced by educator across the country, and in 1982, 175 of them joined John N. Gardner and his colleagues at the University of South Carolina for a meeting on the first-year seminar concept. At the urging of participants, Gardner organized a second meeting with a focus on the entire first college year, resulting in the first Annual Conference on The Freshman Year Experience. Since that time, a series of national and international conferences and forums has focused on the first-year experience on all types of campuses. Special focus meetings have highlighted issues such as diversity, undergraduate teaching, science and technical education, the undecided student, the new student athlete, students with disabilities, the senior year experience, and all students in transition. Since 1997 the National Resource Center has supplemented these traditional meetings with an annual series of live, interactive teleconferences focusing on current issues in higher education.
Finding itself at the forefront of a constantly growing movement to improve the quality of the first college year, University 101 and the University of South Carolina took steps in 1986 to formalize its role in higher education with the creation of the National Center for the Study of The Freshman Year Experience. As the Center broadened its focus to other significant student transitions, it also underwent several name changes, adopting the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition in 1998
Today, the Center and University 101 continue their mission to enhance the educational experiences of undergraduate students. As one academic unit, the Center and University 101 report to the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.
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