2008 Woodie Awards
Student retention rates fall
Amber Chemam
Issue date: 10/11/07 Section: Front Page
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Returning freshman retention rates are down going into the fall 2007 semester, prompting discussion amongst a retention committee headed by Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Steve Sutton.
According to data collected in the recently published 12th day report, 68 percent of the 2006-2007 first-year full-time freshman class returned, which shows a decrease from the previous year.
In a study of Catholic Benchmark Institutions, conducted by last semester by the office for Strategic Planning, Institutional Research and Evaluation, UST compared its own retention rate to those at universities of similar size. Other private institutions included in the study were Loyola University in New Orleans, La., St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif. According to that study, UST has an average retention rate of 71 percent while the overall CCBI average was calculated to be 84 percent.
A committee comprised of 22 faculty, administration and Student Government Association members meets throughout the semester to discuss ideas for improving the retention rate. The group had met only once, as of press time, during the beginning of the fall semester, and uses retention models created by Syracuse University-professor Vincent Tinto to study factors related to retention from an academic and social perspective.
According to Sutton, one major influencing factor in regards to retention is on-campus residency. "When you look at retention, a lot of the research has been done in terms of looking at whether students live on-campus or off-campus and whether the work on-campus or off-campus," he said.
In fall of 2006, 302 first-time freshmen enrolled at UST, with 45 percent living on campus as residential students. Currently, Guinan Hall is at full capacity.
The University plans to build more residence halls and create more jobs on campus in order to accommodate incoming students. Sutton added that focus is also placed on socially-integrating the new freshmen classes with on-campus events, the Odyssey first year experience and other outreach programs such as the time-management course Sutton leads.
According to data collected in the recently published 12th day report, 68 percent of the 2006-2007 first-year full-time freshman class returned, which shows a decrease from the previous year.
In a study of Catholic Benchmark Institutions, conducted by last semester by the office for Strategic Planning, Institutional Research and Evaluation, UST compared its own retention rate to those at universities of similar size. Other private institutions included in the study were Loyola University in New Orleans, La., St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif. According to that study, UST has an average retention rate of 71 percent while the overall CCBI average was calculated to be 84 percent.
A committee comprised of 22 faculty, administration and Student Government Association members meets throughout the semester to discuss ideas for improving the retention rate. The group had met only once, as of press time, during the beginning of the fall semester, and uses retention models created by Syracuse University-professor Vincent Tinto to study factors related to retention from an academic and social perspective.
According to Sutton, one major influencing factor in regards to retention is on-campus residency. "When you look at retention, a lot of the research has been done in terms of looking at whether students live on-campus or off-campus and whether the work on-campus or off-campus," he said.
In fall of 2006, 302 first-time freshmen enrolled at UST, with 45 percent living on campus as residential students. Currently, Guinan Hall is at full capacity.
The University plans to build more residence halls and create more jobs on campus in order to accommodate incoming students. Sutton added that focus is also placed on socially-integrating the new freshmen classes with on-campus events, the Odyssey first year experience and other outreach programs such as the time-management course Sutton leads.