A Message for Faculty and Staff

"Admission opens the door to higher education, but persistence paves the way to graduation."

Dear colleagues,

As you know, retention is about everyone in the college community — from the student workers to the professional staff. The better and more informed we are of how to help our students, the better off the students will be. Many times, a student may think he or she has no other option but to drop out of school, but it takes just that one person — or two or three — to show him an alternative option he may have never known he had.

It is my pleasure to be leading the University's retention efforts as the Assistant Vice President for Retention Management. I hope that you will partner with me so that we can meet the goals put forth in the Vision 2012 strategic plan. It states that the University will "increase and maintain the number of undergraduate students retained from the freshman to sophomore year to 82 percent" and "increase the overall six-year graduate rate to 63 percent for all undergraduate students and 68 percent for student-athletes."

With your help, we have earned a reputation of high achievement in these areas and will continue to be a leader in helping students achieve their higher education goals. It takes everyone in the community doing their job. Now, it is my job to equip you with the right information and some helpful tips to make your job a little easier.

I invite you to browse the Office of Student Retention Web pages and learn what we are doing to help retention and graduation efforts, view our statistics, see what kind of programming we are developing for our students and parents, and check out some of the resources we have compiled for you. And as always, if you have any positive feedback or suggestions, don't hesitate to call me!

Many Blessings,

Rosalind V. Alderman, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President for Retention Management