Student Success Centers Keep Retention on Target

Madison, Wis.—April 16, 2008 — Maximizing your resources early in your relationship with a new student will help you retain them later. And retaining students leads to many benefits, says Dr. Craig Justice, vice president of instruction at Irvine Valley College in Irvine, California. He was speaking to representatives of a diverse group of institutions attending this online seminar.

In this seminar, Dr. Justice described an innovative approach to retention, called the Student Success Center, that focuses the institution’s resources on students from the very beginning of their first year. Dr. Justice showed the statistical evidence that the attention upfront pays off in increased retention—and increased revenues—downstream.

A Student Success Center typically offers workshops on writing and study skills, fundamentals of math, and tutoring with peers and B.A./B.S.-level apprentices.

Coordinated with the Success Center, the school should make sure the first year student:
• is assessed prior to the student’s start date
• sees a counselor on a consistent and regular basis
• follows placement recommendations
• meets course prerequisites

Keeping your enrollment numbers at their optimum level can be quite a challenge, but holding on to the students you already have can make that an easier goal to attain, Justice said. Standard retention models for four year schools often fail to take into account some of the special challenges faced by community colleges.

“The research tells us that students who are attending college for their first semester often have numerous challenges adjusting to the demands of college-level courses. Colleges that address this problem in the student’s first term have the highest retention rates, generally speaking,” said Dr. Justice.

Seminar participants were urged to consider Success Centers as a proven enrollment management philosophy and to focus on retention, rather than new-student recruitment, to boost enrollment. Dr. Justice also recommended using institutional research to validate retention strategies up front and to improve first-year student placement and address math and writing deficits early on.

If you missed the live event, you can order the program in CD or print transcript format, both of which include the presenter's handouts.

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