RU Passport Faculty Guide

Thank you for engaging your students in the Rowan University Passport Program. They’ll learn about Rowan campus, resources, and events while enjoying their “travels.”

Below you can find information about:

• Program structure
• Program goals
• Recommendations for implementation
  • Instructor's responsibilities
  • Sample syllabus statement
  • Events
  • Documentation of event attendance
  • Grades and assignments
• Finding campus events
• Program feedback

Structure of the program:

• Students attend 5 campus or community activities during the semester. Event categories are as follows:

 Rowan University Passport Program Event Categories

Note: Events must take place on or after the first day of the semester and must be organized by a faculty or staff member, campus office, or recognized student organization.

• Instructors can specify individual events if they so choose, or they can allow students to choose within each category. If you specify certain events, please be sensitive to the needs of nontraditional students including commuters and those with significant family or work responsibilities.
• If instructors wish, they can specify a different number or pattern of activities.
• The Passport Program is designed to be “pre-packaged” and easy to use. However, if desired, instructors can modify the Student Guide to reflect the structure of the Passport Program for their individual section.

Goals of the program:

• To help students to build a sense of self as a member of the Rowan community
• To nurture students’ habits of engaging on campus (and in life)
• To familiarize students with the depth and diversity of campus events and resources
• To provide students with experience in navigating the physical campus and Rowan culture
• To stimulate student interest and curiosity about myriad issues
• To strengthen students’ relationships with others (students, faculty and staff) via shared experiences

Recommendations for Implementation in Your Course:

Please note that additional resources are available through the Rowan 101/Rowan Seminar Confluence page at www.rowan.edu/rowan101

Instructor responsibilities:

• You will receive an email with the Student Guide. YOU ARE FREE TO MODIFY THE STUDENT GUIDE, so that if you are adding activities or wish to limit their options to specific choices, you can do so. Please note that you can also access the Student Guide through our website here.
• You will email the Student Guide to your class.
  • Include the program in your syllabus, clearly stating its role in the course, including its part (if any) in the course grade
  • You are free to write your own statement. Here is suggested language – feel free to borrow in whole or in part.

Rowan University Passport Program: Our class will participate in the RUPP, which will provide you with the opportunity to get to know Rowan and college life. The more you participate in the life of the University, the sooner you will feel engaged and comfortable here on campus. You will attend one activity in 4 of 5 categories (Artistic, Athletic, Academic Enrichment, Student Success, and Community Engagement), plus an additional event of your choosing, for a total of 5 events. It’s like having a passport to travel the world, getting stamps at lots of interesting places. But in the RUPP, you’re traveling the campus and collecting experiences that will show you a wide range of Rowan’s rich events and activities. You will receive an email with information about the program. Successful completion of this program is a major part of your attendance and participation grade. [Instructors: we recommend that RUPP be worth 5% of students’ final grade; you are free to determine this for your own section.]

• Introduce the program during class in the first week.
• You will email your students the Student Guide during the first two weeks of class
• If you teach in a tech classroom, you can also show this on the screen during class.
• Explain the goals of the program and benefits to students from participating
• Review the details of the requirements and deadline for completing the program. Only events after classes begin are included (not Orientation, etc.) and must be organized by a faculty or staff member, campus office, or recognized student organization (i.e., not an informal student gathering).

• Discuss ways students can find events to attend (University calendar; emails and flyers;) social media accounts including:
  • Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Rowanssp)
  • Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rowanssp)
  • Twitter (https://twitter.com/RowanSSP);
•  Discuss ways to make informed decisions about which events to attend. Emphasize the importance of attending events they otherwise would not (in order to gain maximum benefit from the program).
• Show your enthusiasm for Rowan and for your own co-curricular experiences as a student (and currently!)

Encourage your students to spread out the 5 events throughout the semester.

• Some events are time-sensitive, especially those that focus on skill-building, transition to college, or connecting to campus organizations:
• Encourage your students to join a campus organization (club, etc.) at the first meeting, if possible. It may be harder to become fully involved in a club half way through the semester.
• Going for tutoring or to a time-management workshop at the end of the semester is less helpful than it would have been in earlier!
• Other events are less time-sensitive:
• g., Attending an artistic performance or sporting event.
• Encourage your students to choose 5 activities that they otherwise may not have attended. For example, if the student was likely to make an advisor appointment or work out at the gym regardless of this program, he or she is encouraged to do 5 activities in addition to those – to maximize engagement in the Rowan community.

You may elect to do an activity as a class, or have students do in small groups of class members, to facilitate building a community in your class. (However, if you choose to do this, be mindful of diverse student schedules and life demands)

• Several faculty and staff on campus have volunteered to meet with your class before, during, or after an event to hold a discussion about the event to deepen the students’ learning.
• Possible events include:
• Attend an exhibit at the art gallery
• Any performing arts event
• A service learning project
• Career events hosted by the Office of Career Advancement
• A residential learning event in the residence halls
• A Glassboro Community event
• Multicultural Affairs event
• Academic Success Center event
• Writing Center event
• If the event occurs outside your usual class time, please allow for an alternate activity for students with legitimate schedule conflicts.
• When possible, speak with the appropriate contact person ahead of time to ensure your class can be accommodated. For service learning opportunities, please speak with Andrew Perrone as early in the semester as possible.

Reviewing Student Responses and Documentation of event attendance:

Please note that as of Spring 2018, students will record their Passport event submissions in ProfLink. Students will need to submit their ProfLink Co-curricular transcripts to you in order to receive credit. Instructions for how to post and print this record are included in the Student Guide. The instructions are also posted below for your reference:

How do Students submit their Passport events?

1. Log into ProfLink. Click on RU Passport Program – Spring-2019 under Paths on the right side of the page. If you do not see RU Passport Program – Spring-2019 under your Paths, please email Hannah Simmons at simmonshm@rowan.edu so that we can add RU Passport to you ProfLink account.
2. Select the event category. (Please note that you should select “self-reported” for events where you did not swipe your student id or use Event Pass to enter. If you did swipe your student id or use Event Pass, select “tracked through ProfLink.” If you aren’t sure if the event was tracked through ProfLink, select “self-reported.”)
3. Click “Report Experience” and select “_Passport Program Event Attendance.” Be sure to answer all of the required questions before clicking save.
4. When you are sure that you have answered all of the questions, click submit. Please note that events may not automatically appear on your progress report.
5. To print your co-curricular transcript, click Print View on the RU Passport Program Path homepage. (The Print View icon is located above the Overall Progress bar to the right and if you are saving as a PDF - Press Print and select Save as PDF as the destination.) Please refer to your professor regarding when your co-curricular transcript is due in class.

• If you choose, you may require submit additional documentation that they attended an event. Some likely forms of documentation (submitted only to you, on the date you specify):
  • An “artifact” from the event, such as a play program or sporting event ticket
  • A printout of their online portfolio of activities with Student Life (available at some events).
  • A note from a staff or faculty member.
  • A photo of themselves at the event.
  • You have the authority to accept or reject any form of documentation. 
• You may also want to create a Blackboard component that allows students to upload their Proflink cocuricular transcript and any supporting documents. 

Grades and Assignments:

• Grades: It is up to you whether this is a formal part of the course grade, an extra credit option, or something else. Based on the results of previous years’, I encourage you to include it as a small part of the course grade.
• Assignments: It is up to you whether other assignments are linked to the Passport Program or whether it is a stand-alone part of your course. Some ideas for assignments:
• Reflective writing linking each event attended to course material, when appropriate, or to their transition to the Rowan campus and community
• For example: attend a department’s guest speaker and relate the content to your course material; visit the Career Management Center and later turn in a summary of their use of the online career planning tools

Finding events:

• University calendar
• Facebook page
• Instagram Page
• Twitter Page
• Intramural sports and rec center events
• Glassboro community events
• Watch for announcements via email or flyers around campus
• Suggest students consult their Resident Assistants (RAs) in their residence halls – they often know a lot about what is happening on campus.

Program feedback:

• Please contact Dr. Sean Hendricks (hendrickss@rowan.edu) at any time you have a question, concern, or suggestion for improvement. Please also feel free to share any events that you think first year students will benefit from.