The Problem Of University Retention Rates

A typical day consisted of, casual conversations between students, Mrs. Hughes, and myself while we wait for more students to arrive. The older female students often got side-tracked talking to one another and on their cell phones. I noticed the majority of the students who come to class are the intermediate/ advanced students, only two beginner students came throughout the entirety of my service. At most, only seven intermediate/ advanced students came to class. Yet, there were two constant students in attendance, Rose (intermediate) and Vicente (advanced). I consider both Rose and Vicente the most driven students in the program, their attendance and participation in class speaks for

First of all, the college made the appropriate decision when cutting the 22 classes. The school’s endowment dropped by 20 percent, meaning that their endorsements were not as high as they

1. “If we cut down on the number of legacy admissions, what would happen to the college budget? We might not even be able to keep things running!”

One of the main focuses of the initiative is to have 5 million more community college graduates by 2020. Achieving the AGI goal will mean that community colleges must increase graduation levels by nearly 250,000 students per year, for a total of 1.75 million students graduating each year until 2020 (Kotamraju & Blackman 2011). The only way to achieve this initiative is to ensure that students are engaged and persist until graduation. Community colleges have been known for quality teaching (Boyer, 1988, as cited in Boggs, 2011). They do not have the hierarchy structure like larger universities so they have more flexibility with programs and can more readily adjust to student needs (Boggs, 2011). Community colleges have also supported what Boggs (2011) calls the open door; Students of all backgrounds have been welcome in community colleges. This open door of acceptance has also made community colleges a highly diverse population with needs that differ from 4-year institutions.

Utilizing this information and comparing it to the programming in place, educators will be able to better meet the needs of adult students and hold their interest. Engaging an adult learner with programming modifications isn’t the only challenge faced.

DSU was founded in 1925, in Cleveland MS, where this school was mainly a predominately ‘White’ institution. Just like other schools in the Deep South, there were several of stipulations for other minorities to attend the universities. DSU has since then allowed every ethnicity to attend the university all over the world. Now for students there are over 60 programs that they can chose from when deciding on a career, whether its online or in a class room setting. Every university in MS are competing with each other, but in my opinion DSU and MS Valley are just a like when I come to colleges in a rural area. DSU is one of the many universities that offer nursing, and aviation program. The main goal for DSU is to increase enrollment and have a higher turnout rate. All schools will see a turnover rate but school officials are trying to change that any way the can. School officials are targeting students in the delta area, instead of targeting other areas in MS. My advice to the school officials will be to expand their horizons, have recruiters go out and promote the university, which would help boost up there retention rate. I will give my recommendations for growth, maturity, and decline for colleges over the state of MS. How can school officials keep students enrolled in school until he or she completes the entire program? I feel that the amount of enrolled individuals inside of a class setting will have an effect on the schools growth. Most students prefer a

The relevance to this study was important because it examines factors that cause withdrawals and my assist with increasing retention rates. The information collected is significant to all stakeholders who wish to retain minority students in higher education. Both public and private universities can stand to increase their knowledge base of how to improve higher education retention for minority students.

Though I remained closely connected to the Office of Admissions during my time in CNS, I observed, as in outsider, significant staffing changes, compromised staff morale, and increased skepticism the institution held for admissions and recruitment staff. In addition, recruitment efforts were often berated publicly as the cause for matriculation declines by ethnicity, major, or caliber. More than 15 admissions officers, the majority from the recruitment division, resigned due to dissatisfaction and/or lack of confidence in changes in leadership and direction of the institution – many of these positions were not replaced. Due to changes in leadership in both admissions and CNS, my position is returning to the Office of Admissions in June 2016. Given the state of the organization, I sought to address the following questions:

Looking into Clinton’s plan and how it would evolve over the next five years, the themes of access and affordability shine through. She believes that all students should be able to obtain a public post-secondary education (Clinton on the Issues: College, 2016). The current truth is that “access and success in higher education continue to be stratified according to income…” (Eckel & King, 2004). With Clinton’s plan access would increase, and with that enrollment would increase. Increased enrollment at college campuses strikes as an initially positive thought; more students can gain and education and contribute that education to bettering society. However, increase enrollment could lead to increase selectivity, if enrollment increased in extreme enough amounts. State schools, that were founded to offer quality education would now have a larger pool of student to pick from. For the state school’s fortunate enough to the capacity to educate more student’s their success would continue to increase. But what about the state schools that are already struggling with enrollment issues? Will they continue to live out their mission and increase enrollment at the expense of the student’s education quality. For campuses that are already filled with students, larger incoming classes would lead to less enrollment options, larger classroom sizes, and the same campus resources spread thinner across a larger student body. Schools in this category would be forced to decide between decreasing

College seeking students are facing a hard reality. They may not be able to attend the school they most desire if they can not get a good scholarship, or they will need to choose a school less desirable because it is among the few they can afford. This proves to be a serious problem, limiting student’s decisions by limiting their choices. Students might choose to attend an expensive school of their choosing and find that they do not have the funds to pay the tuition and then are forced to leave the school. Such situations are evident at Norwich by data provided by the Department of Education, an interesting statistic to note is that the retention rate at Norwich University is 77% (National Center for Education Statistics). This means every new school year Norwich only holds about 77% of the students it had the prior year. However, not all of the

Many institutions face challenges retaining and graduating community college students. Students, faculty, staff, and administrators need work together to find ways to help these students succeed. Through the use of the Achieving the Dream initiative, the organization can help community colleges and their students to stay with their school and become successful academically and professionally.

The public institution selected for this research project is a nonprofit, multi-campus and Georgia’s third-largest technical college based in Waco. The institution has an open admissions policy. It enrolls less than 7,000 students annually, in certificate, diploma, and associate degree programs. The highest degree offered at the institution is an associate degree. The student-faculty ratio is 18-to-1. The challenge for West Georgia Technical College (WGTC) is to design and implement effective retention strategies and programs for first-time students that monitor, encourage , and reward student retention using available resources and without burdening faculty and staff with cumbersome tracking and reporting procedures. While the limitations present an overwhelming task, the consequences of not solving the problem exceed any potential limitations. With these limitations in mind, the researcher’s task is to find a workable solution. First-year retention rates involving higher education undergraduates during the previous several years have improved marginally even with various improvement efforts (Barefoot, 2000; Tinto, 2004). Large numbers of first-year students are exiting college due to unsatisfactory academic skills, failures to adapt both socially and academically, in addition to having an inadequate commitment to the objective of finishing college (Ishler & Upcraft, 2005; Tinto, 1987).

Many colleges and universities throughout the United States and several other countries face a common problem. Student retention is a growing problem across the nation for all ethnic groups and all ages. Each individual who chooses to drop out of school has their own personal reasons as to why they do. However, many drops out can be completely avoided. When students drop out they are not clearly thinking about how it’s going to affect their future, the future of their children and even grandchildren. Although there are several reasons as to why students drop out of school, we will be exploring a few as it relates to why student retention is a growing problem.

themselves could barely be passing by. I admit that sherry brings up a good point in order for a

Jennifer Gonzales, author of the article “Education For All?”, is no stranger to how budget cuts have forced community colleges to make difficult decisions. Some colleges have seen their government funding cut by over twenty-five percent in the last five years alone (Gonzales 5). When community colleges had sufficient funding they housed a diverse student body and offered a variety of courses to meet the unique needs of their students. Unfortunately, as funds have diminished the focus on diversity has been lost in favor of students who are the most qualified on paper. This change in perspective has resulted in over four hundred thousand students being denied admission (Gonzales 2). Gonzales reveals the consequence of this by citing Kay M. McClenney’s belief that "The students who we turn away are the demographic future of America” (2). It is evident that these institutions are experiencing the same adverse effects as larger four year colleges. However, these small colleges are also