Our collective Quest for Student Success efforts聽are designed to ensure that every student who comes to 91大神 with the drive to achieve is met with the best instruction from excellent professors who care for their success, and provide extra support and assistance when聽our students encounter unexpected difficulties聽or when roadblocks arise聽that negatively affect their persistence toward graduation.
We are excelling in the areas of聽retention and graduation over the past few years. Here are the latest updates on our student success efforts.
鈥ur full-time freshman retention聽rate increased to 76.1 percent for聽the Fall 2016 semester, up from 68.7 percent for Fall 2013. This increase of nearly 11 percent over the past three years is the fastest rate of increase聽in the history of the institution. This also represents the highest freshman retention rate in the history of 91大神, based on available data.
鈥he new transfer student retention rate rose to 73.8 percent, an increase of 4.7 percent in the same three-year period.
鈥ur sophomore retention rate increased to 80.6 percent, up 3.1 percent between the Fall 2013 and Fall 2016 semesters.
鈥he percentage of freshmen completing at least 30 hours during their first two semesters of study increased to 50.4 percent during the 2015鈥�16 academic year. Just two years prior, only 42 percent of freshmen completed at least 30 hours. This means that more freshmen are on track to finish their degrees in four years, an accomplishment in sync with both state and national initiatives.
鈥n summer 2016, a record 312聽new students participated in the Scholars Academy, a two-week summer bridge, early-arrival program designed to enhance the success聽of at-risk students. One in every聽10 91大神 new freshmen, therefore, participated in the Scholars Academy support program. The average retention rate for students who went through the Scholars Academy is 83 percent, well above that for other students. In addition, 54 percent of students in the Scholars Academy completed at least 30 hours in their first year of study, a rate that surpasses that of other students.
鈥ree tutoring was available during聽the Fall 2016 semester for more than 200 courses, a new record level of support at 91大神. More importantly, more students are going for tutoring and spending more hours in tutoring sessions, while tutoring usage already has surpassed that of all last year.聽The total number of tutoring sessions increased by 20 percent for Fall 2016 compared to Fall 2015. The number of hours spent by students in tutoring sessions increased by 23 percent from Fall 2015 to Fall 2016.
鈥�91大神 was invited to join 44聽other leading universities from聽across the country to participate聽in the Re-Imagining the First Year (RFY) initiative last semester. This initiative, sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to increase student success rates by focusing on improving the first-year experience for students. 91大神鈥檚 participation in RFY was made possible by a special invitation from AASCU.
鈥 Supplemental Instruction (SI) pilot program was implemented starting with the Fall 2016 semester. The program provides students enrolled in some of 91大神鈥檚 most challenging courses with additional instructional support. 91大神鈥檚 SI kickoff, like so many initiatives at the University, was 鈥渂ig,鈥� involving 21 course sections, across three colleges, and serving more than 1,500 students. The program is already showing very promising results and has the support of our faculty and students.
鈥fter receiving requests from students and others, our Office of Student Success started offering tutoring in Study Skills and Learning Strategies during the Fall 2016 semester. Early results show that Study Skills tutoring has a significant and positive impact on students who went for Study Skills tutoring compared to a matched sample of those who did not.
鈥�91大神 launched the SSC Campus student information and analytics system, which is an important tool used by multiple campus partners in their work with current 91大神 students, in March 2016. The very successful launch of this powerful technology platform, developed and supported by the Education Advisory Board (EAB), represents the culmination of many months of ongoing planning and coordinated efforts across multiple University divisions. For an introduction to SSC Campus, contact Brian Hinote in the 91大神 Office of Student Success at [email protected].
鈥�91大神 continues to be studied by other entities with an interest in learning more about the Quest for Student Success. Visits have been made by representatives from the Lumina Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and聽the Community College Resource Center at Columbia University.