for the improvement of education throughout the institution. As AWA students enroll in courses beyond the project and enter their majors, they will bring an improved attitude toward learning, better study habits, and improved skills for mastering course content. Students who did not require as much or any remediation will be increasingly satisfied with their education at KSU because their classes will be populated by greater numbers of prepared and capable students. With more students prepared for the rigors of college work, faculty will be able to "raise the educational bar" in their courses, which will translate into improvements in the Rising Junior Exam (Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency or CAAP). The University will see an increase in retention from one year to the next as the former AWA students make their way through their sophomore, junior, and senior years. With more students retained, programs will see an increase in the number of declared majors, allowing programs to offer more classes and greater choices of classes for students, and the overall graduation rate of the University will rise.

When implemented, coordination and direction to the Academics with Attitude (AWA) project will be provided by the QEP Implementation Committee, headed by the Project Director, and comprised of representatives from the various constituencies involved with the project (see Section IX, "Organizational Structure," and Appendix III). The Project Director reports to the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, who is a member of the SACS Leadership Team.

The QEP will focus on the most at-risk students: those who require full remediation in three subjects (reading, writing, and mathematics). All students with such needs are required to enroll in the AWA program and complete it successfully if they wish to be considered for admission to the University for the fall term. The program will begin in June 2009. The University believes that students who need extensive developmental assistance will best be served by starting them during the summer term when fewer distractions are present. It is an ideal time to begin this work. Fewer students are on campus during the summer, which allows a greater concentration of University resources for the AWA students and eases the coordination of actions necessary for the formation of living/learning communities. It also is a time-free from competing activities, such as athletics, chorus, band, fraternity and sorority events, which are a part of daily campus life during the regular academic term. During the summer portion of the QEP, students will experience an educational and social environment in which they participate intensively in only 3 courses that meet daily and which focus on their educational and social-psychological needs.

The summer portion of the AWA project will be free to students—the University will pay their tuition, fees, room and board. In the past students who required remediation had to pay for all developmental courses, many often borrowing money or working to pay their bills or both. The KSU AWA project will free students from working to pay for the summer classes and allow them to devote their full attention to the program and remove some pre-college deficiencies. It also relieves them of difficulty to pay debt should they not succeed. In return, the University expects students to begin developing an appropriate attitude toward their classes: admission to the fall semester will require successful completion of the summer portion of the AWA program. Successful completion of the summer program requires students to earn a minimum

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