In the spring of 1999, the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Affairs released the report of the First-Year Experience Task Force. This Task Force put its efforts into developing a thorough understanding of the transitional issues facing students at Berkeley, and then identifying ways in which those transitions might be more positively influenced. Throughout its many discussions, the Task Force came to believe that the "multiple entry point" model of service delivery (also known as decentralization), with appropriate improvements and modifications, is still the most effective way to serve the diverse needs of the entering Cal student. The group came up with a set of five broad outcome statements–in the areas of intellectual confidence, learning the campus, self-knowledge, social community, and future orientation–and then presented a set of recommendations designed to help students achieve these outcomes. The recommendations are as follow:

1: We recommend that small, academically-focused courses which allow students to become engaged with a small community of learners while attending to their own academic development be expanded.

2: We recommend that a thorough reassessment of the campus’ system of advising and coaching students be undertaken immediately.

3: We recommend that a comprehensive method of information dissemination be developed and implemented.

4: We recommend that a location be identified and furnished that would serve as the gathering place for non-resident (commuter) students.

5: We recommend that more deliberate and focused first-semester services on behalf of transfer students be coordinated, to include transitional work on writing and reading, study strategies, portfolio building, etc.

6: We recommend that connections with faculty regarding issues facing the transitioning student be formalized.

7: We recommend that the Career Center and/or other units and segments of the campus community be charged with developing programs and systems that assist new students in building a professional and academic portfolio

8: We recommend that additional offerings be developed so that students have greater options to prepare themselves for their academic work during the summer.

9: We recommend that several campus policies and practices be reviewed for possible modification in support of the first semester student.

Several of these recommendations have already borne fruit–for instance in a new Transfer Student Resource Center–and others are being addressed, in part by the sub-committees of the Commission on Undergraduate Education, described in the introduction to this document.

Not all initiatives are started by the faculty or administration. One particularly well received program on the Berkeley campus was started by a graduate student, Kristine Lang, in fall 1997. The Society for Women in the Physical Sciences (SWPS) assists undergraduate majoring in the physical sciences at Berkeley by providing mentoring, social contact with other women in these majors, workshops, and discussion forums. Undergraduates interested in taking advantage of the mentoring component of the program can join a mentoring group consisting of four to five of their peers, which is informally led by a woman graduate student. Groups meet every week or two, and the meetings are structured to meet the members’ needs. Often groups are organized to ensure that members have courses in common; this facilitates the formation of study groups. Mentor groups engage in a wide variety of activities, from working problem sets and studying for exams to visiting local science museums and taking laboratory tours. Mentors advise mentees on what courses to take, how to apply to graduate school, how to secure a research position, and similar issues. The program has already doubled in size. In 1997 there were thirty students in the mentoring groups; today there are sixty to seventy students participating in the groups. Special events hosted by SWPS attract anywhere from thirty to 250 attendees. This program is an inspiration for those who despair of creating change in a big institution: one individual who identifies a problem can create a program that affects hundreds in a positive way.