Chair Talk #12 March 2016
When asked recently – “what do faculty think about student retention” -- my first response was, “Most of us don't really think about it.” Student retention has not been an explicit part of our job description and there have been no obvious benefits or consequences of seeing success rates go up or down. But that is changing.
You may know that the current first year student retention rate is just over 80%. That means almost one out of every five students who comes to the UA leaves during or after their first year here. Surely this is not a good thing. We have a stated goal of 91% retention by 2025 – which at current enrollment levels translates to retaining an additional 700 students.
Why should faculty care about student retention? There are clear moral and economic reasons. First the moral issue: Allowing students to incur student loan debt without the eventual reward of an earned degree is just wrong. The economic rationale is also clear: tuition revenue represents the major source of funding for the UA. Higher retention rates translate directly into increased resources. Under RCM, extra tuition revenue flows towards those who generate it, hence the benefits to individual faculty, and their departments, are transparent. Whichever argument compels you, faculty can and should do what we can to enhance the likelihood that all of our students stay at the UA, and get the high-quality education we as faculty try our best to provide.
The Enrollment Management area within Student Affairs & Enrollment Management, in response to a specific request from me, provided a list of some of the things faculty can do to give every one of our students a real shot at success at the UA:
1. Communicate expectations: (i) Preview course materials with students; (ii) Set high, but realistic expectations; (iii) Provide an environment in which there is acceptance of diversity and respect for every individual; (iv) Encourage students to use your office hours; (v) Refer to your syllabus often at the start of the course.
2. Ensure Technology: communicating needs is important, but also making sure all your students have access to the necessary technology is critical.
3. Treat students as individual learners: (i) communicate your support for their success; (ii) build a sense of community in your classroom; (iii) Allow students to relate and apply personal, family, or cultural experiences or histories in class assignments, and affirm the validity of their experiences and histories; (iv) Select materials that reflect diverse opinions, and authors; (v) Include practical, real-life examples from many cultures in course content; (vi) Approach students who are doing poorly to arrange a meeting before or after class.
4. Encourage learning within the discipline: (i) Explain time expectations and what students can do to master the specific content of your course; (ii) Help students set up study groups; (iii) Encourage students to attend lectures or events on and off-campus that are related to the subject area.
5. Provide multiple opportunities for success: (i) Schedule early opportunities for success, and increase the difficulty of the material as the semester progresses; (ii) Provide early and frequent evaluations through quizzes and/or short assignments.
6. Help students set achievable goals for themselves.
7. Use collaborative/cooperative assignments to foster social and academic integration.
8. Encourage students to seek assistance when needed.
Those interested in a deeper dive into student retention are referred to: http://www.oakton.edu/user/1/lsaret/LauraSaretOaktonWebSite/Ways%20Faculty%20Can%20Encourage%20Student%20Retention.htm
There is of course more to improving retention than meets the eye – just about everything that happens at the UA affects whether our students succeed, stick around, and complete their college degree. An upcoming message will return to the issue of campus climate, and how that contributes in crucial ways to retaining and graduating as many of our students as we can.