The First-Year Experience Movement: An Interview with Founder John Gardner

John Gardner is a household name in the history of the student success movement inAmerican higher education and globally. He is the original architect of the so-called“First-Year Experience” body of thinking, philosophy, practice, and scholarship. Johnis distinguished professor of Library and Information Science and senior fellow at theUniversity of South Carolina; and co-founder (along with his wife, Betsy O. Barefoot) andexecutive chair of the 26-year-old non-profit organization, the John N. Gardner Institutefor Excellence in Higher Education.