Retention a key focus for the administration in 2009

Center for First-Year Students, payment plans new steps for improvement

September 03, 2008
By Ashley Rueff
Staff Writer

Chancellor Richard Ringeisen is asking everyone at UIS to do their part... by smiling.

He’s encouraging the campus community to welcome new faces on campus in an effort to increase retention of UIS students.

Ringeisen touched on his goal of retaining more students at his Convocation speech on Aug. 21. “We will focus on retention of students as never before,” Ringeisen said. “We are seeing a slip in the percentage of students returning to UIS, and this is at all levels.”

UIS has an average graduation rate of 56 percent, while 79 percent return after freshman year, according to US News and World Report.

“When we stamp your forehead and say ‘UIS student’, we believe you have the ability to graduate,” Ringeisen said.

Marya Leatherwood, interim Assistant Chancellor for Student Affairs, said the university struggles particularly with retaining graduate and transfer students.

The number of continuing graduate students is down 19.2 percent compared to last year, while the number of continuing transfer students is down about five percent.

“We continue to have a problem with the retention of our student population,” Leatherwood said.

The push to increase retention has helped create two new departments this year, including the Diversity Center and the Center for First-Year Students. Both are meant to create a welcoming atmosphere for new students and help them transition to college life.

Also, more than 60 new students are enrolled in UNI 101, a course designed to help students make the high school to college adjustment.

Still, 240 of the 300 freshmen expected to enroll in the Fall 2008 semester will forgo the course. This is the second year the class has been offered.

“We continue to have a problem with the retention of our student population” -Marya Leatherwood, interm Assistant Chancellor for Student Affairs

Besides being able to adjust to college life, Ringeisen sighted financial issues as another large cause of retention problems. According to Leatherwood, increasing costs of gas, food and tuition are making it difficult for students to finish their education.

To ease the burden of tuition and fees, UIS started offering a payment plan through a third party that allows students to pay their student bills in intervals throughout the semester instead of in one lump sum.

Ringeisen said full-time equivalent student enrollment should be around 3,000 this fall, with total student enrollment just under 5,000.

If those students expected to continue into next semester don’t, then the university will be the one with financial issues. If enrollment drops below what the university predicts, revenue from tuition won’t equal what the university has used to budget for the year.

“If you’re not retaining students, you’re having to recruit more,” he said. “We’re the kind of place that ought to have high and lofty retention rates.”