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   from the issue of February 9, 2006

     
 
Postcard, website launch retention campaign

 BY KELLY BARTLING, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Retaining UNL students goes beyond data - those percentage points are real, live students. And keeping students here at UNL is everyone's job.

 

 

That's the message Rita Kean and the Office of Undergraduate Studies is bringing to every faculty, staff and administrative member of UNL.

The first part of a new, visible retention campaign is a postcard to UNL employees: "This is what a 1 percent increase in student retention looks like..." featuring 36 student faces demonstrating the human effect of enhanced retention efforts.

"Our ultimate goal is that our students who start here or transfer here graduate and go on to be successful alums," said Kean, dean of Undergraduate Studies. "The goal of the awareness campaign is that we should raise visibility that we are improving in our ability to retain our students... but that we have more work to do."

The postcard is a visible reminder of the point of student retention, and calls recipients to act, inform themselves or to give more attention to retaining students. A new Web site: retain.unl.edu, lists varieties of ways faculty and staff can help keep students at UNL, and subsequent mailings and information pieces on the Web or on other media will list success stories or "best practices" from ideas brought by various faculty and units across campus.

The ideas and areas for improvement on retention have come through the Enrollment Management Council, Kean said. Faculty will be introduced to the retention "best practices" and the retain Web site through workshops with unit chairs, at faculty presentations and through upcoming human resources presentations to staff.

Kean said the Enrollment Management Council consulted with faculty and staff to identify key barriers to student retention, then created the "best practices" list. Where in the past the term retention has typically been viewed as keeping first-year students from leaving between their first and second year, a broader view of retention has emerged to encompass the entire student career from enrollment through graduation.

Students' lives and their educational needs have continued to complicate retention strategies, Kean said. Today's students view their college experience as the entire scope of their personal, social and academic life, and faculty and staff should be aware that retaining students is more than just offering academic help.

"It's so important for faculty and staff to make a connection with a student, to help students navigate their way through their UNL experience," she said. "Sometimes students don't know what questions to ask: 'who's my adviser?' 'how do I make an appointment with her?' 'what is expected of me?...' We need to make sure they feel connected and get these answers."

Kean said retention first-year initiatives like the Mid Semester Check have proved successful already. UNL is the first university of its kind to offer a "check-point" approach to first-year students part-way into the semester. In fall 2005 more than 1,500 students attended.

She also cited the University Teaching Assistants Corps as a successful new initiative to aid retention. Especially for large classes, the corps features successful students in select classes who are trained in Supplemental Instruction techniques, who also mentor students and work as a liaison between students and faculty.

The learning community program is also beginning to morph into thematic areas that will carry into second, third and fourth years, not just a freshman activity. The STAR advising center in Selleck, also an OUS program, is highlighted as a retention strategy that is a partnership between Housing and Undergraduate Studies.

OASIS and NU Connection programs help specific student populations and are also listed as best practices.

These examples employ teamwork as an important strategy, Kean said.

"The Mid Semester Check works because we have involvement from faculty and colleges that require attendance at the event for students in their first-year core course, Housing, the resident assistants, greek system, New Student Enrollment and Admissions," she said.

"We realize that retention is everybody's business, it's not just faculty, it's not just support staff... because students do not separate us like that. They see UNL as a whole. We're all here to support students, to help them explore their intellectual, social and personal selves.."

Kean said ultimately, the goal of getting a retention rate near 90 percent is attainable. UNL's retention percentage is at 84.6 percent (up from 74.3 in 1996) and Kean would like to move that rate toward the high 80s in the next few years. UNL falls behind its peers in retention, and with a difficult recruitment climate, retaining students becomes even more critical.

Ideas about retaining students can be shared at retain.unl.edu

"We need to give people information and the tools and this is a good first step," Kean said.


GO TO: ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 9

NEWS HEADLINES FOR FEBRUARY 9

Sheldon adds eight pieces to collection
Journalist to discuss rise of EU
Postcard, website launch retention campaign
Second grant keeps outreach center rolling
FROM THE ARCHIVES
'iTunes U' pops onto university playlist
Professor brings university physics to rural Nebraska
State of the University speech available online

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