Dear Colleagues:
As we welcome our students today, I’d like to focus our collective attention on an issue that drives not only the college’s academic reputation but also the future of thousands of our student lives. I’m speaking about retention.
Student retention is one of the driving forces behind what makes a good college become a great college, so it is vital that we do everything within our collective power to assist those who may need a helping hand, or feel lost or uncertain about their academic future at the college.
As some of you may know, we have fallen behind many of our SUNY peer institutions when it comes to year-over-year retention*, and while there are many reasons why students do not persist in their studies, we must take concrete steps to increase our retention efforts.
I have been meeting with academic and student service leaders over the past two months to discuss ways we can “move the needle” on retention starting right now, and I encourage all of you to join these efforts.
Here are several areas where I would like to see renewed focus:
College Success Referral System – Statistics from the past academic year show that only 16 percent of faculty members and administrators actively use the College Success Referral System, formerly known as the Early Alert/Warning System. That number is far too low, and I strongly encourage anyone who may have regular interaction with students to use this tool early in the semester. As you know, early intervention is critical to helping students persist in their studies, so please take advantage of this tool.
Office Hours – I also would encourage faculty members to promote their office hours early and often. Many of our students may be hesitant to seek help from a support center, but one-on-one interaction with a professor can make an enormous difference and provide the encouragement and confidence some student need.
Student/Academic Service Office Promotion – Additionally, I encourage all student and academic service offices to “think outside the box” when it comes to promoting themselves and their services. Whether that’s setting up a table in the Campus Center to promote your office or thinking of additional ways of letting our students know what you do, I encourage you to get creative in letting our students know about what you can do to help them. Please also use our Campus Chronicle and post Student Announcement and Events to alert our community to your services and programs.
Encourage Engagement – With Welcome Week now upon us, new students will be getting a flavor of what our campus has to offer. Research has shown that students who feel more socially engaged on their campus are far more likely to persist in their studies. This is even more critically important at a community college, so I encourage all faculty and staff, especially those involved in student clubs and organizations, to promote and showcase the variety of social, cultural and academic organizations we offer.
All of these efforts fall beneath an umbrella of creating a more welcoming campus that actively shows we care about our students’ success. One may never know what simple but honest interaction with a student can change them from one who is lost to one who feels supported and mentored. Frankly, I feel many small gestures – like encouraging a student to stop by during office hours or helping one who appears lost during the first week of the semester – can add up to a big difference in how a student feels about our college.
Finally, it’s important to note that increased retention has a very real fiscal impact on the college. Just a 3 percent change has a $565,000 impact on the college’s revenue stream. In these times when we must carefully meet our budget projections, any way we can increase retention has positive fiscal implications.
Retention is just one of the areas I would like to focus on as we aim toward the creation of a five-year strategic plan starting this year, but it certainly is one that we can focus on immediately. Thank you, all. I encourage your feedback on any of the ideas above, which you can send to suggestions@hvcc.edu. I look forward to seeing you around campus and in a few weeks at the All College Meeting.
Sincerely,
President Ramsammy
Published: Tue, 28 Aug 2018 12:27:12 +0000 by r.ramsammy