| The
President's Post
 This
past August, during my annual State of the University address, I challenged
us to make student retention – and student success – a top
priority. I then charged Sherrie Arey with leading a campuswide task
force to review our retention efforts and to make recommendations concerning
what we can and will do better.
With guidance from task force co-chairs David Strain
and Stacy Key, several retention-related committees met regularly throughout
the fall semester to discuss issues and strategies for improving retention.
I appreciate the work on this ongoing concern and am pleased to report
that we are making significant progress.
This semester’s enrollment of 576 students represents
92% of the number we had for fall semester. To give you a context, last
spring our enrollment was 87% of the fall number. Factoring out the
16 students who graduated in December, enrollment for this spring is
excellent and a solid number on which to build for next year. What did
we do as a campus community to improve retention? I can identify six
major factors that made a difference:
1. Declared retention to be a campuswide priority
and involved all constituencies in seeking solutions;
2. Created more dialogue among faculty, staff, and
students, and that resulted in a shared commitment to improving retention;
3. Instituted an early intervention process, through
Daniel Taddie and the faculty, for evaluating student progress as early
as four weeks into the fall semester;
4. Moved mid-term grading to a week later in the semester,
gaining more time to compile accurate assessment information;
5. Issued mid-term report cards;
6. Identified student academic and personal needs
early enough in the semester to offer effective intervention and assistance.
Our retention success is a shared success, but it
cannot stop after this semester or the next one. It must become systematized
campuswide, and all of us must continue to commit ourselves to student
achievement and graduation. I thank you for your exemplary efforts toward
ensuring the success of our students. I know the students are grateful
as well.
Dr. Rick Niece
President
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