Enrollment Management Council

Retention Committee

Summary:

• Committee has met seven times since June, 2006.
• Cross Campus Involvement.
• Structure includes six sub-committees: Faculty, Student Goals/CAPS, Developmental Courses, Early Alert/Probation, Student Services, and Best Practices.

Goal: To formulate a campus-wide retention plan and present to EMTF and executive team. Institutional research has provided information and guidance to assist the sub-committees in establishing realistic and data-driven/supported goals. Best practices committee is working to identify existing and successful community college retention programs. Next step is to refine overall plan and determine the goals that can be accomplished with little/no financial resources and those goals requiring larger institutional resources and commitment.

Retention Committee Members, Spring 2007
Colleen Doherty, Assistant Dean of Career and Academic Advisement
Maria Addison, Interim Director of Career and Academic Planning
Lori Corcoran, Director of Disability Services
Dan de la Torre, Coordinator of Transfer/Articulation
Iris Godes, Dean of Enrollment Management
Deborah Gonzalez, Associate Director of Admissions
Renee Gould, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education
Maria Kefallinou, Program Manager of Adult Community Learning Center
Dale LaBonte, Reference Librarian
Tim LaFountaine, Learning Center Manager
Linda LeFave, Professor of Radiologic Technology
Deb Levin, Director of Experience Based Education and Career Placement
Stephen Marini, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs / Director of Distance Education
Carol Murphy, Associate Professor of Accounting
Arpi Payaslian, Associate Professor of English
Jane Shea, Dean of Continuing Education
Anne Shull, Associate Professor of Developmental English / ESL
Ingrid Skadberg, Research Analyst
Liza Smith, Lead CAPS Advisor
Melissa Tamas, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Maura Tighe-Stickles, Interim Dean of Instruction for Humanities
Michelle Tufau, Financial Aid Director
Neena Verma, Director of Institutional Research
Liz Woods, Associate Dean of Students
Maureen Woolhouse, Professor of Mathematics
 

Retention Committee Subcommittee Work

Faculty

Chair – Maureen Woolhouse, Linda LeFave, Carol Murphy, Arpi Payaslian, Maura Stickles, Ingrid Skadberg
 

CAPS/Student Goals

Chair - Colleen Doherty, Deborah Gonzalez, Lisa Smith, Dan de la Torre
 

Student Services

Chair – Tom LaFountaine, Dale LaBonte, Meagen Mulherin, Joanne Sharac, Renee
Gould, Karen Cox, Liz Woods, Maria Addison, Holly Kularski

Early Alert/Probation

Chair: Michelle Tufau, Maria Addison, Iris Godes, Jean McLean, Liz Woods,
Tara Fitzgerald-Jenkins

Developmental Courses

Chair: Anne Shull, Jane Shea, Deb Levin, Steve Marini, Liza Smith, Maria
Kefallinou

Retention Committee Goals from Best Practices Exercise (Noel Levitz) (Prioritized)

• Offer summer bridge programs for academically under-prepared students.
• Require that students on academic probation participate in a "success" program.
• Identify students who may be dropout-prone by observing "behavioral cues" (e.g., missing classes, failing to apply for financial aid, not pre-registering, or requesting a transcript) as part of a proactive “early-alert” program. Reach out to those students to intervene and assist them. Use telecounseling to contact students experiencing difficulty or planning not to return. Communicate with students
  who are in good standing who fail to enroll.
• Establish excellent academic support services (e.g., learning center, math lab, writing lab), and proactively assist students in using this assistance. Provide peer tutorial services. Provide Supplemental Instruction for “killer courses.”
• Track the retention of cohort groups (e.g. poor preparedness, undecideds, honors students, athletes, commuters, residents, late admits, etc.), and develop targeted programs for those whose retention is low.
• Track the retention of cohort groups (e.g. poor preparedness, undecideds, honors students, athletes, commuters, residents, late admits, etc.), and develop targeted programs for those whose retention is low.
• Eliminate the “campus runaround.” Provide ongoing quality service training for all front-line support staff and supervisors. Design an intake system that includes a seamless orientation, assessment, advising, and registration process.
• Review availability of classes to be sure student needs are being met. Eliminate low demand courses and increase availability of high demand courses.
• Conduct exit interviews to ascertain student reasons for leaving and possibly to resolve issues that are barriers to returning.
• Establish appropriate student support groups (e.g., international, minority).
• Conduct student satisfaction surveys on a systematic basis. Use them in planning improvements.
• Attempt to match faculty and staff with those specific student groups that they are interested in working with.
• Conduct summer orientation programs, where the emphasis is on activities designed to build interpersonal affiliations to peers and bonds to the institution. Design and deliver orientation experiences for special groups of students (e.g., adults, transfers, internationals, athletes, selected majors, commuters, resident students).
• Systematically survey/interview all new students within the critical first six weeks.
• Provide incentives, recognition, and rewards for faculty/staff involved in retention-related initiatives.
• Review all policies, procedures, syllabi, and processes to ensure that they are student-centered, learning-oriented, and studentfriendly.
• Change the attitude in serving students from, “We have the services, but students don’t take advantage of them,” to “How can we provide structured ways of ensuring that students are supported by the programs we offer?”