When Augustana faculty, staff, and administrators were discussing the possibility of a single building that combined student life offices, a dining hall, multiple academic services, and the Tredway Library under one roof, one of the suggested advantages to such a design was grounded in the potential for proximity and efficiency. The proximity argument asserted that students would take advantage of more opportunities and services because these offices were conveniently located together. The efficiency argument claimed that students who already intended to use many of these services would be able to do so more quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, we will never be able to produce iron-clad proof that the Center for Student Life (CSL) has lived up to its billing. That would require building an identical Augustana College campus on which we did NOT build a CSL connected to a Tredway Library so that we could compare student behaviors under both conditions (how’s that for a fund-raising challenge!). However, now that we have a year of Gävle gatherings and “all-you-care-to-eat” dining under our collective belts, we ought to be able to examine our student data to see if use of the CSL is contributing to student growth and success.

So let’s start with the aforementioned rationales for attaching the CSL to the Tredway Library.

• The proximity of academic and student life offices and facilities would collectively boost student use of academic services and involvement in student groups.
• The convenience of locating all these facilities and services in one place would help students engage the totality of the Augustana experience more efficiently.

In last year’s freshman surveys, we asked several questions that we can analyze together to test these assertions. The question central to today’s analysis asked, “How often did you study – by yourself or in small groups – in any part of the CSL/Tredway library building?” Although this question focuses on academic pursuits, if the prior assertions hold true responses to this question ought to correlate positively with increased use of academic resources, increased involvement in student groups, and growth on some important developmental or learning outcome of the freshman year.

It turns out that the Center for Student Life appears to be functioning exactly as we hoped it would. Even after accounting for differences in gender, race, incoming academic ability, and socio-economic status, the frequency of students’ studying in the CSL or Tredway Library predicted a stronger response to the statement “I took advantage of academic support resources (faculty office hours, reading and writing center, tutors, study groups, etc.) when I could benefit from their help.” Likewise, the frequency of studying in the CSL or Tredway Library building predicted stronger agreement to the statement “I am participating in at least one student group/organization that interests me.”

Finally, students’ frequency of studying in the CSL/Tredway Library significantly predicted their agreement with the statement, “During the year I got better at balancing my academics with my out-of-class activities.” By comparison, students’ frequency of studying in their dorm room produced no such relationship.

So what does all of this mean? In short, the Center for Student Life seems to be cultivating the kind of student behavior patterns that improve multiple aspects of their engagement as well as a key aspect of their development. The more time students spend studying in the CSL/Tredway Library, the more likely they are to use the academic resources they need when they need them, find and join student groups that fit their interests, and improve their ability to balance all the in-class and out-of-class elements of the Augustana experience that we believe are important for learning. These findings suggest that we ought to take a hard look at students’ propensity to study in their dorm rooms (75% of last year’s freshmen spent at least half of their study time in their dorm rooms) and the ways that we guide them to make more effective use of space and place.

Moreover, this is the kind of guidance that students need to hear over and over. In many cases our students are coming from life experiences where they didn’t leave their homes – or even their rooms – to study. In addition, they may not know much about the importance of establishing effective behavior patterns or conditions most conducive to learning.  We know that a fundamental difference between high school and college success lies in the shift to a more assertive approach to learning, and the idea that one would find a distinct location to study is a longstanding example of such an approach to college.

Based on our freshman data, the benefits of the CSL seem pretty clear. This isn’t to say that the CSL is perfect or that there aren’t other things that we could do to improve the building or the way that we use it. But in terms of its effect on increasing the quality of our students’ experience and helping Augustana meet its educational mission, the CSL seems to be off to a good start.

But the building isn’t so effective that it will magically suck students into some sort of learning vortex. If they don’t use it, then it’s of little use. So I hope that you will strongly encourage your students to put themselves in a position to reap benefits of the CSL and the Tredway Library.

Make it a good day,

Mark