Retaining Students

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Posted: Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 9:39 pm | Last Updated: Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
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As this is our last editorial of the winter semester and 2010-11 school year, it may very well be the last editorial you read as an Oakland University student.
And that doesn’t apply only to seniors.
OU’s first year retention rate is 76 percent, according to data compiled by the university, meaning approximately one in four current
freshmen won’t be Golden Grizzlies come this fall.
Why is this happening? One could blame educational quality, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for us. It is nearly impossible for students to find a class taught by a graduate assistant or the like, though that is the reality at many large state universities. About 90 percent of Oakland’s professors hold doctoral degrees, and most have real-life experience in their field of study.
While the retention rate doesn’t fluctuate greatly year to year, the freshman class profile is going up. The average ACT score of incoming freshmen has increased incrementally over the last five years, from 21.6 in 2006 to 22.4 in 2010. At the risk of sounding like an admissions brochure, we must stress that these are simply the facts.
What can bring students to OU and keep them here, though? The school has taken a step with implementing multiple concurrent enrollment programs with community colleges in the area. A fourth partnership of the sort was announced Friday with Mott Community College.
Does a football program make for a legitimate destination college? That seems to be the case with the top two choices in the state, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.
However, a school that is consistently named as a dream school by both parents and students in an annual survey done by the Princeton Review is New York University — and the Violets haven’t fielded a football team since the 1960s.
What the school does have is an urban campus that provides access to internships and other opportunities in a large city. OU shares that benefit; its location is a huge advantage over schools like Central Michigan University and its Mount Pleasant location, which is comparatively isolated.
At the Creating the Future II summit, President Gary Russi tasked campus and community leaders with coming up with ways to better the school. One of the bigger issues brought up was the recruiting and retention of high school students — of which there will be a smaller pool in coming years — and those who haven’t completed their secondary education.
The school has done well in avoiding the “capital arms race” — pooling all assets toward bells and whistles like a football program — that Jeff Williams, a consultant hired by the school for Public Sector Consultants, says is not a good idea. The school should take this advice and focus on assets that “enable students to interact,” such as technology and programs that encourage collaboration.
Russi has stressed that OU is still a young school. It is doing all the prescribed things to grow; it is just an issue of time and age when it comes to retention rates.
Enrollment numbers continue to rise — we’ll let you decide whether that’s a good thing. Regardless, OU should worry less about the quantity of students and more about the quality of students and the education they receive.

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  • Corinna Muntean

    OU should offer internships for juniors and seniors as a class. That would make OU stand out. Students are gaining experience in the field that they want to go into. It will let students know if they really like that field. Maybe they enjoyed the class, but they didn’t enjoy the internship. It will also help students with networking.

    It may sound crazy, but some students may drop out because they don’t want to drive that far and then put up with the parking problem. During the student congress campaigns some of the candidates talked about a parking solution. They said that if you painted the lines on an angle you can add spaces. I’ve heard that if you did that, you could add 100 spots to the parking lot infront of the Oakland Center. I think that could work or they could put a parking structure there. Almost everyone wants to park there, so that would be the best solution. Another small solution would be to add more parking spots on the left side–near the round about.

    For more tips, visit my website: http://restoringthemeaningofeducation.weebly.com/index.html. You can also Google Restoring the Meaning of Education or e-mail me at rme2011@yahoo.com.

    The retention rates are getting better, which is a good thing. The problem is that most people are taking a longer time to graduate (about 6 years). OU students work more than the national average. Therefore, students are taking the bare minimum of classes, so they can get financial aid and work to pay for their classes.

    There are three reasons why the retention rates are really bad. First of all, there are transfer students. OU is a transfer school. A lot of the people go to OU, so they can go to other schools like MSU. People usually do that because they originally didn’t get accepted there or they couldn’t afford it. For the transfer rate, OU only looks at students who attend classes full time and never attended another college or university. It’s called first time at any college. Then there are the drop out students. They drop out for a myriad of reasons–money reasons, classes being too difficult, being ill, and the list goes on. Lastly, there are the stop-out students. They’re the ones who will attend class, leave, and then come back. Some leave because of financial reasons or because they didn’t pick a major very soon and they needed some time to ponder about it.

    The Oakland Post had written an article about the evaluations. I think they should write another one that isn’t in a small corner. That’s a really important topic. Students should take them more seriously and not rush through them. I believe that a lot of students don’t take them seriously because they’re at the end of the class period and people just want to leave. This gives feedback to professors and the department. It can helps with promotions too. I also think that professors should take them more seriously. The evaluations should be enforced. That’s how the retention rates can be improved. The students tell the professors what they want to improve. Students and professors should also use ratemyprofessor.com more.

  • Corinna Muntean

    Oakland University should put a parking structure infront of the Oakland Center. That’s where the vast majority of people want to park. There should also be a drop off center for students who need to be picked up or dropped off.

    OU can save some money by spending less on statues, signs, and other expenses that really add up. They can spend them on bigger projects that will really affect the students like parking structures.

    There should be healthier options. If students are there all day, and all they have to choose from are the things in the cafeteria and the stuff in vending machines, then they’ll gain a tremendous amount of weight. Some students can’t bring stuff from home because it will spoil or they don’t have an ample amount of room for it in their backpack. The food should be healthy, affordable, and quick.

    Finally, OU should implement some of the ideas that are on my website. My website isn’t just about improving the school system. It’s about: socioeconomic status, success, globalization, and how to have a better memory. Those are all things that America and other countries are struggling with.

    http://restoringthemeaningofeducation.weebly.com/index.html

    If people join Restoring the Meaning of Education, then they can put it on their resume.