BENTONVILLE -- Northwest Arkansas Community College administrators continue to work on boosting the school's student retention rate and are emphasizing that every employee shares in that responsibility.
Todd Kitchen, vice president of student services, presented information on the retention rate during the board of trustees' annual summer retreat meeting Saturday.
Action plans
Increasing first-year retention rates is one of Northwest Arkansas Community College’s strategic objectives for the 2015-16 school year. Some action plans college administrators have outlined for accomplishing that include:• Analyze retention data trends and target areas for improvement utilizing various student characteristics.
• Study and select a best practice model to increase student success from the beginning of the student admissions process. Implement a sustainable case-management model for student success.
• Collect and analyze data regarding the effectiveness of the First Year Experience and make changes accordingly.
• Develop encouraging voice through marketing strategies across campus.
Source: Northwest Arkansas Community College
The college this fall is launching a Retention and Persistence Committee made up of about a dozen faculty and staff members representing different departments. The committee will engage faculty members, who are "the best resource to improve student retention," Kitchen said.
The committee reflects the philosophy that everyone has a role to play in student success and, in turn, the retention rate, said Evelyn Jorgenson, college president.
"Primarily student success has been the responsibility of Dr. Kitchen, but I pull back a little from that, because I believe everybody is responsible for student success," Jorgenson told the board. "It's very difficult to nail this down to one person."
Another strategy the college will employ is the "guided pathways" model. Students who are uncertain of what they're looking for in a career will be shepherded into "meta-majors," or groups of academic programs that have common content. Students narrow their career focus as they advance through their education and discover what interests them most, Jorgenson said.
A student who expresses an interest in nursing could start out in the health professions pathway, for example.
"Then maybe in that pathway, if nursing doesn't quite work out for them, they are at least aware of some of the other options in health professions, and we can catch them and guide them in another direction," Jorgenson said. "So we're still continuing them in that pathway, but there are options, and they don't feel it's all or nothing."
Kitchen also presented data showing how students end up leaving the college. Some leave because they graduate; others leave because they've lost their financial aid.
Another category of student exits -- labeled "stop out or drop out" -- refers to students who were eligible to return to the school but did not. Nineteen percent of student exits last school year fell under this category.
Many of those students are between the ages of 27 and 34 and are leaving school to take jobs, officials said.
"The unemployment rate in Northwest Arkansas is at 4 percent," said Ricky Tompkins, vice president for learning. "You look at that key demographic of who's dropping out, if they can get a job, guess what, they're going out to get a job."
Some students leave the college to transfer to another school before completing an associate degree, Kitchen said.
The college has battled sagging enrollment for several years. Its overall for-credit enrollment number was 8,098 in the fall. That represents a 5 percent decrease since enrollment hit an all-time high in fall 2011.
Enrollment for this fall semester is 4 percent below what was originally projected, Kitchen said. Fall classes begin Aug. 24. The enrollment period is ramping up now, Kitchen said, adding that he would have a better idea in about three weeks what the fall numbers will be.
The college built its budget for this fiscal year on the assumption that enrollment would be down 3 percent from last fall. The college will have to make some midyear budget adjustments if enrollment falls short of that mark, Jorgenson said.
During Saturday's meeting, Jorgenson presented a review of the college's goals for the 2014-15 school year. She also presented a draft of goals for the 2015-16 year.
The first major goal under last year's plan was to increase student enrollment. The draft of this year's goals lists "increase student success" as the No. 1 goal.
"An awful lot of input came from faculty discussion that we should focus more on student success than on increasing enrollment," Jorgenson said.
Increasing first-year retention rates is one of the objectives on the 2015-16 list.
The draft copy of goals for this school year will be distributed among staff and board members for feedback. The goals will be finalized by the time fall classes start, Jorgenson said.
Metro on 07/26/2015