STUDENT SUCCESS THROUGH CURA PERSONALIS AND CONSIDERATION OF STUDENT CONTEXTS

Arrupe College, founded in 2015 at Loyola University Chicago, offers associate degrees in the Jesuit liberal arts tradition. Of Arrupe’s ~350 students, 96% self-identify as people of color and 66% are women. Most students pay less than $2000/year out of pocket. Arrupe's substantial core includes two semesters of Environmental Science.

Student success at Arrupe draws on the Jesuit idea of “cura personalis,” or care for the whole person. We focus on building relationships among students, faculty, and staff to provide holistic support. Instructors regularly communicate with students, faculty advisors, and the Office of Student Success to identify and resolve external challenges affecting a student’s academics. Wraparound services (social workers, laptops, a meal program, and a food pantry) are essential.

Our course design considers our students and their contexts. We utilized only Open Education Resources, until summer 2020 when remote teaching created a greater need for the consistency and accountability that commercial texts and courseware offer. For summer and fall 2020, we shipped lab kits which took into consideration student access to materials, undisturbed indoor spaces, and safe and convenient outdoor spaces. We build flexibility and accessibility into our courses by offering several ways to complete assignments, captioning lecture videos, and teaching asynchronously or semi-synchronously to accommodate hectic student schedules.

We strongly emphasize quantitative skills, using active learning strategies that support collaborative learning. Widespread use of active learning strategies among faculty is reflected in student acceptance of active learning. We evaluate student learning using low stakes assessments, scaffolded major assignments, short answer questions, and test corrections.

Learning communities give students a chance to learn about a common topic from different perspectives, by taking a pair of courses with the same classmates. Our environmental science courses have been paired with courses in theology, philosophy, literature, and writing. In these communities, we have assigned readings and field trips to explore themes like Laudato Si, and the science and morality of zoos and aquariums.

Student success is largely dependent on student contexts. Arrupe College promotes student success through a lens of ‘cura personalis’ by considering student contexts inside and outside of the classroom which are evolving with the COVID-19 pandemic and switch to remote learning.