Keys and Tools to Succeed in the Bryant Community

Preparing for the future requires direct exposure to the day-to-day inner workings of the professional world. Internship opportunities and a study abroad program enable students to apply and expand the knowledge they have acquired in the classroom.

The combination of professional courses and liberal studies, on-campus study, and internships provides a firm foundation on which students can build successful careers and productive lives.

Bryant Principles and the Bryant University Pledge

Bryant believes in the importance of building community. This effort is guided by several principles that shape our shared experience. Fostering those principles helps the University prepare its students to achieve their personal best. To enter Bryant University is to become a member of a community, which is both a privilege and an opportunity. Participation in and support of this community is a responsibility shared by all. The search for community represents a process and a journey dedicated to helping students prepare for success in life and their careers. These guiding principles are:

• Bryant University is an educationally purposeful community – a place where faculty, staff, and students work together to strengthen teaching and learning on campus.
• The campus is a place where high standards of civility are set and violations are challenged. Bryant University is a community whose members speak and listen carefully to each other.
• Bryant University is a place where the sacredness of each person is honored and where diversity is aggressively pursued.
• Bryant University clearly states both its academic and social expectations. All must accept their obligations as citizens of the Bryant community and expect to be held accountable for behavior as individuals and members of groups.
• The University is a caring community where the well-being of each member is supported and where service to others is encouraged.
• The campus finds opportunities to affirm both tradition and change. Orientation, Convocation, Homecoming, Commencement, and other activities are examples of celebratory activities. Good traditions must be preserved, new ones established, and others extinguished.

These principles are outlined in Ernest Boyer’s book Campus Life: In Search of Community [Boyer, E.L. (1990). San Francisco: The Carnegie Commission for the Advancement of Teaching.] and form the basis of the Bryant University Pledge, which is signed by all first-year students and the University president. These principles represent the shared commitments of students and the institution’s staff and faculty to a successful learning experience.

Orientation

In June, the Student Affairs division coordinates four, two-day overnight programs for incoming students and their family members to welcome them into the Bryant community. Guided by upperclassmen trained as Orientation Leaders, participants in the New Student Orientation program register for classes, are introduced to Bryant’s many services, programs, and resources, meet staff and faculty, and explore the campus. They also have the opportunity to connect with their future classmates at a variety of events and programs.

WELCOME WEEK

Welcome Week is a mandatory program for first year and transfer students that is held the weekend prior to the start of classes in the fall. It is designed to ease students’ transition to university life by having them meet one another and interact with members of the faculty and staff. Residential students will move into the residence halls, and commuters will have a welcome program to meet fellow commuters. Transfer students have their own Orientation Day. Welcome Week continues the conversation from Orientation to make sure students feel prepared to begin their first semester at Bryant. A variety of social activities and discussions of expectations and concerns engage students in the campus community and emphasize active participation in the educational process. New students can also look forward to first year programming throughout the first semester.

Mid-Term Grades for First-Year Students

Instructors of first-year students work with first-year students to alert them to potential academic issues in time to take appropriate corrective action.