Binghamton University Scholars Program builds community

Back in 2010, Bill Ziegler, then associate professor of computer science and collegiate professor for Newing College, was looking for more and better ways to build relationships with students.

“When I first began teaching at Binghamton, we had 20 or 25 students per class and taught our own labs so I got to know every one of my students,” Ziegler said. “Eventually, classes reached past 100 students at times and TAs took over the labs. It seemed I had lost all connections with students, the part I enjoyed most about teaching.”

Becoming a collegiate professor in 2006 was one way to get to know students better, but he found that he connected with a limited number of students, mostly resident assistants. He wanted more.

Enter the Binghamton University Scholars Program that had been created around 2000, but needed a revamp. He accepted the challenge of developing it further. He’s been executive director of the scholars program since 2010, but is stepping down effective July 1.

Developing the program into what it is today started with Ziegler asking, “What are the guidelines? What can I do with the program?”

“I was told that I could do anything I wanted, as long as I had buy in,” he said. “You have to justify every decision made and then you can do anything you want. How could I turn that down?”

Ziegler started by talking to students. “As a collegiate professor you really get to know some of them, and as scholars you get to know the eager ones,” he said.

“My vision was to make the scholars program about the students, not the institution,” he said. “I decided right from the start to gather a bunch of students together to do all the brainstorming and planning. I don’t always make brilliant decisions, but that one was one of best decisions in my career —and the rest is history.

“The results of simply listening to students and having the support of the University has led us to a program that all of us at Binghamton can be proud of,” he said.

“The students invited to become Binghamton University scholars are intelligent and engaged in ways that set a standard for us all,” President Harvey Stenger said. “It’s a credit to the program and its leaders that the students themselves have played such a critical role in the program’s evolution and in its many successes.”

“The Binghamton University Scholars Program is unique to our campus and provides some of our brightest students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and make an impact on their communities, both on campus and off,” Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald Nieman said. “By the time these students graduate from Binghamton, they have demonstrated that they will be able to make a true impact in whatever career path they follow.”

Ziegler believes that he had never seen the “whole student” until he became involved in the program. “As a collegiate professor, I would have a whole community-wide program and only 10 would come,” he said. “I thought: Let’s do what the students want to do, so ask them.”

Ziegler admitted that he’s not a fan of hockey, for example, but he goes to games with about 150 scholars because that’s one of the things they want to do. “And we do hikes to Watkins Glen and Taughannock Falls with about 150 students; all because I ask them what they want.”

What it boils down to, Ziegler said, is making the students feel that they belong.

“What matters is do they feel they fit here,” he said. “And that’s how you get returning students.

“I’m not the one who makes them feel like they fit, but I can arrange these experiences so they make friends and fit in. People stay at a university not because one professor is amazing but because they make a connection and feel they fit.”

The academic aspect of the program is also designed to build community, according to Ziegler.

“If you look at what other colleges are doing, everybody is creating an honors program to make students feel honored — just a collection of courses,” he said. “And then they wonder why the retention rate, especially in honors programs, is only about 30% across most honors programs. I’ve often said an honors program shouldn’t be more work, it should be different work. Don’t just make it about work or more work. It’s about doing things differently.”

Differently on the academic side of the equation means that the scholars all take the same course and live together in the Scholars Learning Community their first year.

“They all have assignments that have to do with community building, like participating in a scavenger hunt on campus,” Ziegler said. “The first-year course is called Thinking Like Leonardo da Vinci, and they all take it together and get to know each other.”

Each subsequent semester, all scholars take a scholars course that continues to bring them together. In the second year, they also take a service-learning course with things to do outside the classroom as they reconnect with their fellow scholars.

“By then, they’re either staying or they’re not,” Ziegler said. “So, the requirements for the scholars program are that there are four years of requirements!”

Ziegler’s proudest moments come when students share their personal successes with him, such as getting into graduate or medical school, getting job offers or just that they’ve made lifelong friends because of the program.

“I feel a sense of pride every time a student shares good news with me. I also feel proud when I help students out of a dark spots in their lives,” he added. “Students come to me for every reason you can imagine and sometimes the student is struggling. Many times I have had students enter my office carrying what seems like the world on their shoulders. When they leave my office feeling like everything is going to be ok, that’s a proud moment.”

Other proud moments have involved successes in the Federal Aviation Administration Design Competition for Universities that scholars participate in annually.

“The FAA competition is all about identifying a problem and developing an idea of how to solve it — a proof of concept that doesn’t have to be built,” he said. “It has strict writing guidelines that are evaluated by a team of professionals. So I thought I would make it a scholars’ course.”

Since first entering the competition in 2009, Binghamton students have won eight first-place awards, six second-place awards, three third-place awards and two honorable mentions.

A further example of success is that the first-place entry from 2009 turned into a grant of more than $2 million from the FAA and NYSERDA to construct and research a geothermal runway heating and terminal cooling system at the Greater Binghamton Airport.

“We’ve all worked hard, but laughed just as much. It has been a great ride and I think it’s been a great success, all because I listened,” Ziegler said. “I will miss drinking from the fountain of youth — the students who come into the scholars office suite who fill the place with wonder, innocence, excitement and laughter.”

Ziegler is stepping away from the scholars program, but will become special assistant to the president, working on projects such as with the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU); the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC); the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium.