RETENTION
Old Wine in a New Bottle
OR…An Idea Whose Time
Has Finally Come?
Symposium on Student Retention │ January 13-14, 2015 │ Costa Mesa, CA
jngi.org
© 2015, John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
Looking back
over a four
decades’ odyssey
Colleges and
universities were
not designed for
the students who
now predominate
And many of us
weren’t made for
these students
either…challenges
of empathy,
understanding,
relevance
So what do we do?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
change us
change our institutions
change the students
change public policy
all of the above
Importance of …
a manageable focus - individual
and institutional locus of control
Staying the “course”…
vs. fads and administrative
ideas de jour
Retention is all about…
“institutionalizing” innovation
and improvements= “sustaining”
hard work, long term systemic
change, no quick fix, no
panacea, no silver bullet, sound
educational practices
It is more than “completion”…
“Completion” for what?
Being intentional about our
mission and having “foundational”
experiences to attain the mission
Most common response?
“Develop a program.”
It is more than “completion”…
Program focus on sub
populations vs. all students
What works in America: what
we do for the critical mass—
as close to all students as
we can get
Which
programs
seem to
yield the
greatest
impact?
•
first-year seminars
•
learning communities
•
Supplemental Instruction
•
Orientation
•
Early alert interventions
•
Enhanced advising
interventions
•
On-campus employment
Key decision:
engage the faculty
/avoid the faculty
Need for partnerships
The academic/student affairs divide
Need for new models
Integration is new normal/new mantra
Is the creation
of a new role
and profession
the answer?
After a half century
of programs,
and the evolution
of Student Affairs,
and, most recently,
technology solutions,
there is still not enough progress.
21st Century
next steps…
Next steps
Programs are necessary but not sufficient
What’s missing is a comprehensive plan
(example: Foundations of Excellence®, Retention Performance
Management™)
Have to execute that plan
More Student Affairs professionals
necessary—but not sufficient
Next steps
Have to engage the faculty
Specifically, have to focus on
gateway courses
Need a plan to do so
(e.g. Gateways to Completion®, G2C®)
Need to execute that plan
Next steps
Hardest thing of all: have to change
the rewards structure
Must improve partnerships, affect
greater integration
Need to mine the data we have
Inform wider campus community of
what we know
Next steps
Actually use the data to make decisions
for educational improvement
(e.g. Retention Performance Management ™)
Need campus policy audits
Shift focus from “access” to “success”
Going forth
(some basic
assumptions)
Going forth
Student Success”/”College Success”/
“First-Year Experience”/“Transition Studies”
is now an established field of research and
professional endeavor
Going forth
We know what to do and know how to do
Need for campus and national political will
Lack of money is a cop out (on part of students
and institutions)
There are sufficient resources
Going forth
Need to bring pilots and boutique programs
to scale—e.g. “high impact practices”
Need disruptive change and redesign
Going forth
There are many inspirational examples—
some old, some new: TRIO, Alverno, Elon,
University 101, Guttman Community College,
Valencia College
You can leave with a plan to be one!
Now let’s get back to
getting on with that!