Three retention award winners
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) issued awards to Robert Morris University, Seneca College and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). The key to Robert Morris University’s retention success is an intrusive advising approach that supports students from their transition into college through graduation. Early contact helps students make plans for academic and social improvement. Intrusive non-faculty advising creates relationships with shared responsibility, goals and encouragement. Since student needs extend beyond the academic, advisors are cross-trained to have financial aid and career services/internship information. EPI says Robert Morris University is a leader in retaining and graduating students of color. SUCCESS@Seneca engages the Seneca College community, encouraging a culture of connection and pride. Included are orientation, an online ‘success’ portal, success workshops, social networking opportunities, and a College Coach. Seneca support staff, faculty and administrators participate as College Coaches and workshop facilitators. Institutional research data indicates that students who participate persist in their college studies and achieve at high academic levels. Retention at IUPUI increased from 74% in 2004 to 80% in 2009. The school’s Summer Academy Bridge Program/Themed Learning Communities Joint Initiative serves about one fifth of entering freshmen. Annual retention, GPA, and satisfaction scores show that student participants are likely to be academically successful, to feel positive about their experiences at IUPUI and to be retained.
Retaining low-income students in Maryland
Four-year colleges and universities in Maryland are participants in a two-year retention study being conducted by the Pell Institute and the Council for Opportunity in Education. Sponsored by USA Funds, the project is designed to better serve low-income students and increase the rates at which they are retained. First, audit tools will be developed to measure retention rates of students by family income. Next, professional development training will instruct teams to use the audit tools and interpret data. Finally, senior management and faculty will expand or develop resources for low-income students. Still published and useful is a 2007 Pell Institute report, Demography Is Not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large Public Universities.
Build Connections, Build Student Success
Being motivated for college is one thing. Being prepared to succeed there is another. The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) reveals that entering students think that their own resolve will enable them to stay in college and achieve their academic goals. But even among those that successfully continue, many considered dropping out at some point, and their explanations of what helped them stay in school are revealing. For example, a particular person is usually cited by name. It's always an instructor, a staff member or another student who gave encouragement, guidance, or support that was needed to keep going. Personal connections are the unanticipated success factor—a critical variable that improves the odds of persistence and retention. Meanwhile, students’ typical patterns of college attendance, including part-time enrollment and juggling classes with work and family commitments, create connection challenges. Personal connections do not happen easily or automatically. Schools should examine how they can foster stronger and more diverse connections with, and among, students.
Annals of retention... retention... retention
"The only thing you're sure to retain is water," quipped one longtime enrollment management practitioner. Retention was on many lips and everyone's minds in Dallas at AACRAO's November '09 Strategic Enrollment Management conference. Tactical suggestions and proven strategies to help students persist were plentiful. Today enrollments swirl, as many students attend multiple institutions in succession, sometimes simultaneously. As a result, there is more than one way to look at retention. Is a student's retention at an individual school of prime importance. Or, is his or her persistence to an eventual degree from any school of key importance? And, for students who never earn degrees, what prevention measures or interventions might have changed the outcome? The consensus was clear that retention must mesh with institutional mission and goals. A successful retention campaign requires strong commitment from senior executives and the collaboration of most every campus employee.
One experienced enrollment manager called it "playing well in the sandbox together." One successful way to do so is to score an employee's "retention contribution" and include it in performance appraisals that affect promotion and pay raises. At one campus that strategy brought faculty and academic department staff into the game in short order. Effective data and measurement systems are also needed to raise flags when individual students need intervention and to track institutional effectiveness. Quality data can help enrollment managers scale appropriate student services and stop funding those that really don't matter. Solution providers are working with enrollment managers to launch retention projects that work—and document their effectiveness.
Sometimes retention results when a caring staffer simply listens to a student's concerns. It may be as simple as providing a bus pass so a student can get to classes. What was certain among AACRAO's enrollment management pros is that retention has to be a part of everyone's job.
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