Exploratory Students

The Exploratory Student Program, developed by the Office of Enrollment and Student Success, is a retention initiative targeted to new freshmen and transfer students who are uncertain enough about their academic and career direction to be unwilling to commit to a major. Because the campus registration system requires them to be assigned to some academic program, they register in undeclared liberal arts (“UL”). 

The ESP program is a proactive initiative that opens up several ways to provide support to undeclared students at the outset of their academic career. The program is intended to help them make progress toward their degree while they’re exploring their options.

The core of the ESP program is course clusters.  The goal of course clusters is to keep groups of 25 to 45 students together for three of their first-semester classes. Course clusters would be comprised of College Writing 1, an introductory humanities or social sciences course, and an introductory course in an area in which students have expressed some interest. Ideally, both introductory courses would satisfy general education requirements. 

The ESP program includes other activities, such as those dealing with career, which vary from year to year.

Students who are eligible for the Exploratory Student Program will be contacted by staff from the Office of Enrollment Management and Student Success.