Category | News

University works to improve retention and graduation rates

Published on January 31, 2007 by The Sentinel

The four-year experience some call the time of your life, also known as
college, doesn’t seem to be quite long enough for some. Many college
students are graduating within five, six or even seven years.
any students are taking a different route to graduation and extending
their experience. In 2000, six percent of the freshman class at KSU
graduated in four years, 16 percent graduated in five years and 24
percent graduated in six years. The trend seems to be continually, but
not so gradually, moving up.

    Students stumble across many different roadblocks slowing down their journey to graduation. Some students are unsure of their future or just get “burned out” and decide to take a break. Others must work full-time and struggle to balance both a full load of classes and work, inevitably prolonging the number of years it takes to finish their degree. Some just try to avoid their future and the “real world;” and then of course for some it’s just laziness. KSU is aware of the problem and is working to fix it.

     ”The issue of student retention is a major priority this year,” said Lendley Black, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs of KSU. “There are a number of factors influencing the decline of graduation rates. It seems to be in many cases, students are not particularly concerned with taking several years to get through college. We want to help them understand the advantage of having a clear set of academic goals and realign their academic priorities.”

    “The university has many plans in store,” said Black “We are looking at a number of ways to assist students.” Increasing tutoring programs and providing a Supplemental Instruction Program are just some of the plans on the list.

    The SIP involves high risk courses, which are courses with a comparatively high D, F or withdrawal rate. Students that have been successful in these courses are asked to be SI facilitators to help students currently taking these courses. The SI facilitators help by providing these struggling students with study sessions outside of class, one on one or in group sessions. They are also asked to sit in on the courses they are helping with to understand what the instructor is teaching and asking of their students.

    Ralph J. Rascati, associate vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of University College, points out that “the program is strictly voluntary. We don’t target a student but let them know that the service is available.” Since the program was started a year ago, “two or more students from these classes generally tend to do better in the course by at least one letter grade.” Another group being targeted is undeclared students.

    “One of KSU’s biggest loses are the students that have not declared a major. When they don’t have a successful experience they tend to leave because they are not connecting with the institution,” Rascati said.

    A pilot study was conducted last fall. Some sections of KSU 1101, KSU Freshman Seminar, provided the students an advising team at their discretion. This team included the instructor of their KSU 1101 course, a counselor from the CAPS center, and a student peer advisor from the Center for Student Leadership.

    “The preliminary results showed that 100 percent of the students that took advantage of the opportunity were retained for spring semester,” Rascati said, “The GPA of those groups for that semester averaged a little over 3.2.”

    On the other hand, 92-93 percent were retained for the following semester out of the groups that did not take advantage of the advising team or students that were not in a class where the program was offered. Their average GPA for those groups was a little under 2.9 for the semester.

    “A small but significant difference,” Rascati said, “enough of an indication that we need to expand and work on a larger group for next fall.”

    Other programs are still in the works. Rascati describes a program to identify students heading into the direction of academic trouble, “known as intrusive advising.” Students are identified by certain assignments that are troubling them, “we go to them and offer help. This has worked at a lot of campuses across the country.”

    A large part of the problem seems to be the availability of resources. As KSU continues to rapidly grow it is difficult for students to have the schedule they want. “Changes are being made with the new social science building and new faculty members” Black said, “The issue is not finding the students; it’s providing them with the right tools.”