Background
Black Hills State University emphasizes retention efforts in three key areas under its strategic goals and strategies: enrollment management, teaching and learning, and quality of campus life for students. The university thus sees the importance of providing its students with appropriate course placement and education, academic and career counseling, leadership development, and overall support. Since BHSU is the only state-funded, baccalaureate degree, Liberal Arts University in western South Dakota, it faces a major challenge in terms of recruiting and retaining its students, who typically have a diverse range of academic abilities and experiences.
Realizing the need for a more aggressive approach to increase retention at BHSU, former President Flickema established the Retention Office in the fall of 2002, appointed a full-time retention director, and identified a fifteen-member Retention Advisory Committee. The president’s charge to the director and task force underscored concerns about declining retention rates and students registering for fewer credit hours per semester, a decrease in the traditional college-age demographic in South Dakota, and the risk of lost human potential due to a less-educated and less-competent workforce in the future. The focus would be on a “bottom-up” approach—direct interventions to assist individual students—to be headed up by the Retention Center, now reorganized as the Student Success Center.
SD BOR System Retention Task Force
In January, 2003, Robert T. “Tad” Perry, Executive Director of the South Dakota Board of Regents, appointed a task force to review retention practices at each of the public universities in the state. Co-chaired by SDSU Deans Marysz Rames and Gail Tidemann, the Task Force was a collaborative effort among the six state institutions to gather information and share current practices. The work of the Task Force is summarized in the report linked below. This report provides a review of research on retention, benchmark data on retention and graduation rates, and key components of student retention. Programs and strategies currently in use at South Dakota public institutions are linked to these key components in an overview of each university’s retention efforts. Noteworthy retention programs, both inside and outside South Dakota, are highlighted. Retention strategies for distance education programs are included as well. Finally, recommendations regarding ways to strengthen retention efforts in South Dakota's universities are presented.
Retention Websites
- Center for the Study of College Student Retention:
The Center provides retention resources to individuals and educational institutions. Their aim is to provide researchers and practitioners with a comprehensive resource for finding information on college student retention and attrition.
- Suffolk University Retention Center:
Suffolk University encourages registration for the following semester; coaches students to advocate for themselves within the University structure; provides financial counseling; and more.
- Diversity Web: (Iowa State)
Intrusive advising has been effective in increasing the retention and overall academic performance of a variety of high-risk students. It also has been shown to benefit traditional college students as well.
- Colorado State University
- NACADA - Retention:
"Academic Advising and the First Semester: Collaborations for Student Success" has been evaluated by on-going assessment, and indicates high effectiveness at IUPUI. Because the program is based on meeting the individual needs of students, it is highly applicable to any institution. In fact, many institutions have implemented portions of this intrusive first-semester advising system. The uniqueness, and ultimately the success, of the program lie in the collaborative approach to the first semester experience. Adaptation of the total program will be enhanced by efforts to build relationships with academic and administrative units serving first-year students.
- CSRDE - Consortium for Student Retention Data:
The CSRDE at the University of Oklahoma is a consortium of two-year and four-year institutions that are dedicated to achieving higher levels of student success.
- Getting the College Edge Textbook
Discusses the results of surveys taken of freshmen.