AAC&U News | February 2004

Teaching the Culture of Learning: CUNY Colleges in the Bronx Collaborate on Bridge to College Program

Through several recent projects, including the Greater Expectations initiative and the Pathways to College Network, AAC&U has stressed the importance of improving students' college readiness and reducing the barriers far too many students face in gaining access to, and succeeding in, college. A collaborative program undertaken by three CUNY colleges—Lehman College, Bronx Community College, and Hostos Community College—the "Bridge to College" program serves as one excellent model for addressing some of these pressing issues.

Helping a Diverse Community Gain Access to College

The Bridge to College program is offered at CUNY on the Concourse, a satellite campus that opened in 2002 in response to a great need in the Bronx. "We have found there is an enormous need in our community to offer programs that address the unique needs of those who wish to return to school," said Michael Paull, Dean of Individualized and Continuing Education at Lehman College. The Concourse campus offers a range of courses to serve the Bronx community, including professional training and certifications, workshops for K-12 students, English language instruction, writing and cultural arts institutes, and serves as the home of CUNY Preparatory Transitional High School, a program to help out-of-school youth re-enter high school and prepare for admission to college.

The Bridge to College program is specifically designed to help non-traditional adult student populations in the Bronx gain access to college and succeed once they are there. Launched in Spring 2003, the program offers one year of non-credit-bearing college preparatory instruction and advisement, drawing a diverse group of students from the Bronx community. "We can accept anyone who has a high school diploma or GED who has taken the CUNY ACT exam. We have 18- and 19-year old students as well as some senior citizens," said program coordinator Leo Parascondola. The program's student demographic profile indicates that the "average" Bridge to College student is a 37 year old working woman of color. The students represent the dominant population groups in the Bronx. "Our students are African American, Afro Caribbean, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, Guyanese, Albanian and Russian. Students from Nigeria and Ghana are also highly represented," said Parascondola.

For students returning to college, "time and money are the two greatest challenges," said Paull. The Bridge to College program is designed to help incoming students overcome both these challenges. Courses are offered in the evenings and during the day as well, allowing flexibility for students who have many other commitments. Students can enroll on a full or part-time basis in fall, spring, or summer sessions for the equivalent of up to one academic year. In addition, tuition for students in the Bridge to College program is subsidized by CUNY, so that students pay a total of $54 per 14-week semester for two courses. Book purchases are subsidized up to $50, and the program's Tutoring Center is free. Students also have computer access for some classes and for extended periods when they are not in class. In comparison, similar remedial coursework, books, and services at one of the CUNY community colleges would cost students more than $1000 each semester.

The physical setting of the program at CUNY on the Concourse helps ease students into the college experience. In the middle of one of the busiest shopping districts in the Bronx, readily accessible by public transportation, the new campus offers a nurturing environment, where a small cohort of students is supported with personalized attention and counseling. Students in the program are helped to negotiate the complexities of college life before they move onto the large and more impersonal main campuses. "At least once per semester, students in each Bridge to College course receive advisement visits from the admissions officers and financial aid officers from the colleges," said Parascondola. In addition, faculty and professionals in the community often give students additional counseling and support.

Building College Preparedness

Most students entering the program have received a failing score on both the CUNY ACT writing and mathematics exams. However, the Bridge coursework in the program does not simply coach students to pass the exams. "This is not a skills immersion program to prepare students for the ACT, but to teach critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills to actually prepare students for college success," said Dean Paull.

In particular, these students, many of whom have been out of a classroom for more than ten years, need help to increase their comfort levels with academic settings and exams. The purpose of the program is, in part, "to teach the culture of learning and of being a college student," said Parascondola. Students in the Bridge to College program take carefully constructed courses with strong liberal education components. "The courses have college-level expectations and require real intellectual work," said Stuart Cochran, assistant to John Garvey, Associate Dean for Collaborative Programs in the Office of Academic Affairs. "Students read complex texts and grapple with issues that develop critical thinking."

Students in the program generally take two writing and math courses over a year of instruction in order to develop and improve these important skills. Math instruction often includes reading and writing assignments that allow students to learn or relearn basic math concepts such as percentages, decimals, fractions, charts, and graphs. Math courses are tailored to address the students' capabilities each semester; in-class tutors allow students to focus their studies intensively on what they need to master. Recent course topics included basic skills in arithmetic, geometry, and intermediate algebra, material currently contained in the CUNY ACT tests.

Writing and Critical Thinking courses, while requiring similar assignments each semester, vary in their topics and texts. Reading and writing assignments closely model for students the expectations of college-level composition courses. Writing assignments help students develop a range of writing skills, including more informal weekly journals and personal narratives in which students write based upon work or other life experience. However, the courses also require traditional academic essays that ask students to respond to assigned readings and demonstrate critical reflection.

Reading and writing courses are designed to help students to develop fundamental college skills—reading comprehension and vocabulary, note-taking and outlining, summarizing, proofreading and grammar—while also addressing occupational issues. For example, in a recent course students worked with key concepts in Freudian psychology, including some feminist critiques, to examine a number of literary texts that addressed themes of work, including The Job, an early Sinclair Lewis novel, Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex," Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl," and Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson."

Building the Necessary Confidence for College Success

The new program has already had marked success. Despite a lack of advertising dollars to get the word out, enrollments are growing. And of the cohort of 60 students who enrolled in the first semester, Spring 2003, 25 have now been admitted to CUNY. Most students have also seen measurable improvements in their CUNY ACT scores.

Perhaps the most important achievements are the intangible benefits of the program—helping this student population to develop and appreciate their own academic abilities. "Many of these students simply need to understand how good they actually are. What they need is a formal academic setting that allows them to gain the necessary confidence to pass the exams and succeed in college," said Paull. Once they have been accepted into college, the returning adult students are among the most successful cohort of students on campus. "They have among the highest GPAs, and are well represented on the Deans Lists across the college," said Paull.

Moreover, while returning students often say that they intend to pursue professional fields of study, many of these students end up going on to pursue liberal arts degrees instead. In fact, at Lehman College, Paull said, the majority of the college's English majors are drawn from the adult education students. "For these students, because of their work and family experiences, liberal arts courses can be very meaningful."