While she may now have 50 years under her belt at CSUB, Dr. Flachmann doesn’t intend to rest on her laurels.
“I’m not slowing down. I’m committed to the activities I already have going on,” she said.
One of these is a two-year pilot program that will launch in the fall in which student tutors will be placed in non-English courses at CSUB with high failure rates to help students complete their writing assignments, in the hopes that it will lead more students to pass their classes.
Dr. Flachmann recently received a $20,000 Equity in Action grant from the CSU Student Success Network to fund the program. The grant is awarded to campuses to fund projects that aim to close student equity gaps and improve learning outcomes.
“I’m so excited. My gut said we need this grant on this campus,” she said. “We have an extremely active faculty written communication learning community in general education who want to discuss their writing assignments.”
Dr. Flachmann came up with the idea for the program after attending a statewide meeting during which faculty from several campuses expressed concern about a growing number of students dropping their classes after being assigned writing projects.
“I think students fall into two categories when they’re in college: They either feel ‘yes, I can write,’ or they feel they don’t know how to write and they run for the hills at the first assignment,” she said. “Most students can write — they’re just afraid. It’s like a form of paralysis.”
For each semester of the pilot, Dr. Flachmann will work with faculty from two classes that have a high level of students with Ds, Fs or withdrawals. A student tutor will be dedicated to each course to work with students on their writing projects from the time they are assigned until they are due.
“Tutors hired by this grant will help students with their writing assignments before they can start to react emotionally,” she said. “I will work with the faculty. They will run their assignments by me. I will make sure they have all the resources they need for students and help them revise their assignments. It’s about making assignments as accessible to the students as possible.”
There is a lot riding on this pilot program. CSUB is the first CSU campus to implement such a program, according to Dr. Flachmann. If it’s successful in reducing the rate of withdrawals and failed grades, she hopes the university will receive more funding to keep the program going.
“I’m already thinking of ways to disseminate this to other campuses, to partner with campuses who want to try this,” she said.
A successful pilot wouldn’t be possible without the support of faculty who are willing to try something new, Dr. Flachmann said.
“Our campus always has faculty who are interested in integrating writing into their courses,” she said. “They’re inspiring to work with because they care about literacy. I don’t have to go knock on their doors – they just come willingly, and that’s not typical of all CSUs. That’s our faculty.”
While having seen and accomplished much during her years at CSUB, Dr. Flachmann said she’s excited to see how the campus evolves over the coming years.
“It’s such a good environment here. We’ve got great students and faculty who care about writing,” she said. “I truly love Bakersfield and I’ve loved my time at CSUB. This is where I was born to be.”
Click here to learn more about CSUB’s Writing Program.