We aim to continue scaling first-year LCs so all new full-time first-year students enroll in an LC by an opt-out approach. Longer-term aims are to develop more Living-Learning Communities (see sub-strategy 1.b., below) and to add to the LCs more sections of the first-year seminar (GGC 1000), redesigned to include discipline-specific content that can align with Core IMPACTS. This Momentum/ASPIRE strategy supports Goal 1, Objective B of the GGC 2023-2025 Strategic Plan to “Expand the current Learning Communities, including Living-Learning Communities, with a curricular and co-curricular focus.”
In fall 2024, we saw a 73% increase (966 students) in LC enrollment because of collaborative efforts between Student Success and Enrollment Management. Student Success, Admissions, New Students Connections, and Registration Services continued their collaboration in spring 2025 to develop a plan for preregistering new students into learning communities. However, technology challenges with the Financial Responsibility Agreement form prevented full implementation of the plan. While those issues were resolved mid-summer, students were not consistently completing the agreement, so advisors had difficulty getting students preregistered. We enrolled 994 students into fall 2025 learning communities but believe that number will significantly increase with improved registration. We have also onboarded a learning community specialist who will work with Enrollment Management and the schools to build and maintain learning communities in BANNER. The LC specialist will also work on marketing.
Priority for the upcoming year will continue to be collaborating with Enrollment Management and Student Accounts to streamline the process for students to sign the Financial Responsibility Agreement in a timely manner. This will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the pre-registration process.
Challenges that could affect our ability to scale learning communities include insufficient course availability and unforeseen technical issues that impede preregistration.
The Learning Communities strategy will benefit by learning from other USG institutions’ best practices, particularly where scaling and the inclusion of the first-year seminar are concerned. Designing plans in the light of the latest information from the System Office will also prepare GGC to be flexible where needed in delivering this important Student Success Strategy for our first-year students.
