Retention focuses on freshmen, transfers Progress reports, expanded UB 101, block scheduling among initiatives to keep students

By SUE WUETCHER
News Services Associate Editor

Having successfully bolstered its undergraduate recruitment efforts, the university has turned its attention to keeping those students it worked so hard to enroll, this fall initiating new strategies and expanding existing ones designed to increase retention of freshmen and transfer students in particular.

The key to these new strategies has been an emphasis on more personal contact with students, combined with new "technological tools" that flag those who are in trouble academically or are at risk of doing poorly, as well those that "empower" students to take charge of their academic career, says Janina Kaars, director of academic advisement.

And while measures of the effort's effectiveness are not yet available, Kaars says it appears to be paying off.

Citing anecdotal evidence, such as comments from UB 101 instructors and the reactions of students who receive proactive telephone calls from advisors, Kaars adds: "I'm optimistic we will see improvement (in retention) with the extra efforts."

Among those "extra efforts" recently implemented by the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education is the institution of mid-semester progress reports for all first-semester undergraduates.

Faculty members who teach courses that include any first-semester freshmen and transfer students were asked to report whether the students were performing satisfactorily. Those who were not were contacted-both by letter and personal telephone call-with the goal of increasing communication between students and instructors, reducing the failure rate and improving the student-retention rate.

Kaars notes that although not all faculty members complied with the request to submit the progress reports, the ones that did generated a "lot of positive feedback." Moreover, "a lot of students have taken the letter seriously" and spoken with their instructors, she adds, calling the initiative "a huge first step."

Another major effort has been a significant increase in the number of sections of UB 101, a weekly one-credit course that offers freshmen, in groups no larger than 15, information about life at the university, study skills, time management and resources that are available to them. More than 1,000 freshmen are enrolled in 54 sections-up from 15 a year ago-of the course, which is taught by volunteer faculty and staff members, with the assistance of undergraduate and graduate students.

Kaars says the course offers personal attention and "another small-class experience" for freshmen in general, similar to those that have been offered traditionally for first-year students in the University Honors Program, student athletes and students in the Educational Opportunity Program.

With the multiplication of sections of UB 101, Kaars notes that about half of this year's 2,932-member freshman class are enrolled in courses to help facilitate their transition to the university.

Another new innovation is block scheduling. Under the arrangement, based on the concept of a "learning community," students enrolled in a particular section of UB 101 also are registered in three other common classes. With students seeing each other in class daily, the premise is that the small group will bond, establish study groups and exchange ideas, Kaars says.

Among other initiatives highlighted by Kaars are:

- Implementation of the Noel-Levitz Retention Management System. About 4,000 entering students filled out a questionnaire during orientation that helps identify for students and their advisors factors that might put them at risk for academic difficulty, such as poor study habits, financial problems or lack of social skills. Kaars says the system is "powerful in beginning to open conversations" between students and advisors.

- Creation of a campus-wide advisement council in which advisors from the individual departments, the Student Services Centers in each dean's office, the University Honors Program, athletics and the Academic Advising Center meet regularly to exchange information. "We're now building a real seamless web of advisement," she says.

- Major technological advances, such as BIRD, DARS and SOAR, that enable students to access easily their transcripts and schedules, as well as university and major requirements, financial aid information and course registration. Kaars notes that 9,000 different students used SOAR (Student Online Access to Records) on the first day of classes. When students "empower" themselves to take charge of their academic careers, "you see their comfort level growing and that makes for a happier student," one who wants to stay at UB, she says.

Also on the technological front, UB InfoSource allows advisors to query the UB mainframe for specific data on students. For example, using UB InfoSource, staff members from the Academic Advising Center can ask for the names of all undergraduates with 60 or more credits who have not declared a major. Or they can identify the students who have not preregistered for the next semester.

"It allows departments to identify problems and flag students before the problems become too enormous," Kaars says.

She points out that while staff from Noel-Levitz-the enrollment-management consulting firm UB has engaged to help with recruitment efforts-say there are no "silver bullets" to solve the retention problem, they also have praised UB's efforts to address the issue. In fact, staff from the Academic Advising Center have been asked to discuss UB's retention initiatives at a national conference, she adds.