Enrollment Management Electronic Newsletter

Institutional SEM Strategies

Phase II: Retention Strategies

Retention often is described as the maintenance of students' satisfactory progress toward educational objectives until graduation. As we recruit and admit students to Shepherd University they should reasonably expect that the programs, policies, procedures, and interventions necessary for them to succeed are in place. Research shows us that efforts to foster student development and promote quality also increase student persistence.

Retention, however, can take on many approaches from a variety of perspectives (institutional, state, and federal). These perspectives center differently on both causes and outcomes, whether student or institutionally focused. However, regardless of perspective, retention begins at the point of recruitment. Recruitment and retention are synergistic and unavoidably linked. Therefore, it is essential from the SEM point of view that retention and recruitment are synchronized.

In order to accomplish this synchronization, institutions must focus on enrollment decisions and the factors that influence them. These factors fall into three categories:

Academic (climate, faculty-student interaction, and teaching-learning process)
Administrative/Service (climate, support systems, administrative policy)
Student Affairs (peer relationships, engagement, student development)

Research allows institutions to know which of these factors influence decisions, which need attention, and which have a positive impact on retention behavior, The key to impacting retention statistics is in the ability to identify "at risk" students early enough for intervention to work.

The Retention Classification System, outlined below, permits the student information system to categorize students according to retention criteria shaped by academic and administrative policy and student performance.

I. Persisters -- Currently enrolled students
- Satisfactory Academic Progress
- Unsatisfactory Degree Progress
- Unsatisfactory GPA

II. Graduates -- Students have completed a degree objective

III. Attainers -- Students have completed a nondegree objective

IV. Transfers -- Students leaving the institution for another
- Planned
- Unplanned

V. Stop Outs -- Students who fail to register or enroll for the next logical term

VI. Drop Outs -- Students who voluntarily withdraw

VII. Dismissals -- Students who did not enroll due to institutional action
- Financial Nonpayment
- Academic Disqualification
- Administrative Disqualification
- Disciplinary Disqualification

* Sources cited for this article are Strategic Enrollment Management, 2nd Edition, AACRAO, 1997, and SEM and Institutional Success, AACRAO, 2008.