Home Away from Home: The Vital Role of a Welcoming College Environment (Episode 3)

As colleges are starting their new academic year, it is critical to exhibit caring and inclusive actions toward our learners, teachers, and staff. Building a supportive and understanding community leads to a welcoming environment. Eventually, these actions permeate every aspect of college education and enhance the learning, as well as the retention and success of students.

Join us, Zahi Atallah and Chris Forde of Let’s Talk Ed, as we share our experiences leading to a welcoming college. A college community that creates a family of staff and faculty and that establishes a climate of tolerance, assistance, and encouragement of all learners. Examples of such actions include: food pantries, student clubs and activities, lobbies and hallways filled with activities and relaxing coves, schedules that serve the life/work balance, modalities that align with student interest, growing and developing faculty and staff, or setting high but attainable expectations of student, etc. Good colleges are welcoming and supportive colleges. Moreover, students of welcoming colleges are retained and succeed at higher rates.


For specific approaches to implement a welcoming college, we urge you to checkout this excellent article by the folks at the Community College Research Center (CCRC): https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/implementing-caring-campus-strategies.html.


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