Sometimes students just have to go elsewhere, but the University of Idaho, through the Office of the Dean of Students and University Housing continues to exercise initiatives to keep first year students at UI.
Such retention programs include New Student Orientation, the Early Warning System for grades, Student Options Advising Retreat (SOAR), the Vandal Edge program and Making Achievement Possible (MAP)-Works.
Dean of Students Bruce Pitman said the programs work throughout the year to keep students at UI.
On the front end its been about New Student Orientation and getting them off to a good start, Pitman said.
” Pitman said. “The next step will be our Early Warning System in the third week of September, and then we will have another opportunity to give these students direct feedback and connect them to resources when the midterm grades come out.”
Pitman said New Student Orientation focused on getting students familiar with resources available at the university.
“Many of the presentations that have been made are focused on letting students know what resources are available, but also giving them advice about getting off to a fresh start, a good start,” Pitman said.
Pitman said the early warning system encourages faculty who primarily teach freshmen to turn in grades within four weeks of the first round of tests. Pitman said students not doing well will be contacted to meet with their academic advisers so they can adjust their approach and connect with available resources on campus.
The SOAR program is also a viable option in keeping first-year students from possibly leaving the university. Pitman said SOAR is a one-day workshop in January for freshmen placed on academic probation at the end of the fall semester. The workshop allows freshmen to consider what worked well in the previous semester and what did not in order to consider adjustments for the spring semester, Pitman said.
In addition to the university wide campaigns for freshmen retention, there are two retention initiatives that have been implemented by University Housing.
The Vandal Edge Program aims to help freshmen residing in Theophilus Tower to become better connected to the UI campus. According to Director of Housing Dee Dee Kanikkeberg, students involved in the program engage in a service project, attend two cultural programs, join a campus-based club or organization and make a commitment to meet with their academic support staff official.
Additionally, the survey-based MAP-Works program individually assesses the strengths and weaknesses of first-year students. The program measures academic integration, social integration, skills and abilities and expectations of the college experience are all examined, and allows the university to give viable feedback to struggling freshmen.
Kanikkeberg said University Housing is implementing another retention program this fall. The program is called Engineering in Scholars. The program will primarily revolve around the engineering community and involve upper level students tutoring freshmen in engineering related courses, Kanikkeberg said.
Assistant Director for Student Success Matt Kelly said the Engineering in Scholars program could be used as a model for other colleges.
“It’s a program that we’re looking to see if it’s meant to be modeled by other colleges, in somewhere of the same vain, of having upper classmen come in and assist our staff with providing better programming and better academic support for our students,” Kelly said.
The Engineering in Scholars program is a needed addition to the university’s mentoring efforts, which Pitman said is where the university is most lacking in freshmen retention.
“I think it would be helpful if we had more mentoring programs, more programs where upper classmen are heavily involved with helping first-year students and first-year non-traditional students make that transition to campus life,” Pitman said. “I think that having older experienced students mentor new students would be very helpful.”
Nevertheless, UI continues be at the top of the state in freshmen retention.
“We have the highest retention rates of any institution in the state of Idaho,” Pitman said. “We’re very competitive with our peers elsewhere.”
Andrew Jenson can be reached at [email protected]