Informal discussions on retention held every Tuesday from 12:15 – 12:45 in Fireside Meeting Room A.
Minutes from 3/20/2012
(total in attendance: 16)
Remarks not attributed to individuals in attendance
I.
12:15 Call to order
II.
“Homework assignment” a.
Randy suggested a new homework assignment for next week. Let’s focus on what we think we do right – then try to build on that.
III.
Senior Students Total Cumulative Hours Report a.
Bini has double checked the accuracy of this report and consolidated it a bit and since last week’s group was small, we are re-visiting it again today. He ran this report to answer the question: Are our students accumulating more credit hours than necessary? Data in report was pulled from IUIE. b.
Important to note that the total credit hours listed includes transfer hours. Indicates the huge mobility of some students from college to college. Some transfer here with 80-120 credit hours. c.
Total credit hours listed in report are cumulative, not just hours that count towards degree. Includes F grades, but not W’s or repeated classes d.
Seniors are classified as those with 86 credit hours or more. You would expect the average senior to have around 90-120 hours. e.
High hours are to be expected with some degree plans, for example
BACH NON-NURS to BSN. These people would have previous degree.

f.
Pre-business students however are typically freshman, so the list of seniors classified as pre-business is puzzling.
IV.
Possible explanations a.
Are these students struggling academically? In other words are they still in pre-nursing and pre-business because they are not facing the reality that they can’t get into the program? b.
Students that change majors will be bringing these high hours with them. It is important that we try to determine between those students struggling academically and those that simply change majors.
V.
Prevention a.
When students get to the senior level we assume that a very high percentage will graduate, but this report indicates most will graduate with more credits than they need. How should we address this?
We’re looking at the end of a long process here…in order to get here lots has to happen prior. How should we intervene earlier? Maybe start looking at sophomores and juniors. b.
Univ. of TX implemented a new Bachelor’s of Interdisciplinary Studies and was able to get a large number of seniors with high hours graduated. c.
Our General Studies degree is similar. We have 191 seniors in the
General Studies program and graduate a lot of them every year. d.
Is it possible to flag students when they get to a certain # of hours?
And intervene by advising? e.
Univ. of TX has determined that after a certain point a student cannot change majors – it’s too late in the game. They decided they were wasting a lot of resources, and that students were accumulating a lot of debt by taking classes that did not count towards their degree. On the other hand if a student wanted to change majors and could make the argument and show that they were prepared financially and otherwise, an exception could be made.

f.
Need to separate out students in this report who are working on their second degrees. g.
Probably need to actually start pulling files. 10 or so from each program would give us a good flavor. Deans would have to decide if their advisors could do this. h.
In CLAS, any student having 40 hours or above can’t register without seeing an advisor. Started this practice last year. They are focusing their attention on high hour students and undecided students. A lot of times their GPA’s are just not high enough for them to get into their desired program. Other students are taking W130 three and four times. i.
It was noted that many successful students do change majors at some point in their college careers and can make it work. j.
We need to do a better job of helping students choose majors k.
Career Services offers “Choose your Major” programs and no one comes. They have lots of other offerings as well, coupled with an aggressive marketing campaign but still, turnout is poor. l.
Many Univ. of TX high hour students who chose the Interdisciplinary
Studies Degree had no idea how close they were to graduating. m.
Our General Studies Degree sounds very similar – could we do this as well? n.
Students transferring to Gen Ed must take a minimum of 20 hours , even if they have all the requirements. Not meant to be a catch all for people who want to graduate. Pros and cons of Gen Ed degree were discussed: It is sometimes a hard degree to market, however it’s a good start for people who may not have had a degree otherwise. o.
Most schools have a requirement that students must see an advisor once a year, but many still don’t realize they’re close to their financial aid maximum
VI.
Future meetings a.
Will look into the 126 pre-business seniors to further analyze and will share findings at a future meeting

b.
Bini will try to further refine the report by removing the F’s
Meeting adjourned 12:45
Respectfully submitted,
Betsy Jaffee
Executive Secretary to the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management