Commission on Student Success focuses on student retention
The commission will release a survey for students not continuing their education at MU.
Published Oct. 29, 2010
Led by three of MU’s administrators, the Commission on Student Success was formed to address the recently released retention and graduation rates.
According to the rates, provided by Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Ann Korschgen, the overall retention rate between freshman and sophomore year is 84.6 percent and the overall graduation rate is 69.3 percent.
“We are doing well, but I would like to see the numbers improve,” Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs said in an e-mail. “We have some room to improve.”
This year’s graduation rate is the highest in MU’s history, Korschgen said. She said the retention and graduation rates are much higher than the national average for public universities.
These numbers vary among races, with American Indians having the lowest retention rate at 80.8 percent. Black students had the lowest graduation rate, 58 percent. International students had the highest retention rates, with 85.4 percent returning for their second year, and Asian students had the highest graduation rate of 74.2 percent.
“We know there are students from different backgrounds that don’t succeed at the same rate as other students on campus,” Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies Jim Spain said. “We want to investigate the things that are apparently interfering with student success in those areas.”
Spain, Korschgen and Scroggs are the co-chairmen of the commission, which will conduct an investigation on the issue.
“This group is helping the campus identify all of these different things from all of these different perspectives that we know impact student success rates,” Spain said.
At Oct. 20’s Town Hall meeting, Spain said more than 50 people across campus had gathered the day prior to participate in the commission. He said throughout the next five to six months, the commission will examine ways to help students thrive at MU.
“We’re going to recommend to the campus the things that we should be investing in to improve student success,” Spain said. “We need to help students avoid what we’ve identified as the hindrances. Let’s get those things completely out of the picture so they don’t even have to work to get around them or over them or through them.”
The commission recently divided into groups targeting these roadblocks, including issues such as financial aid and academic advising. By referring to expert reports on these focuses, the commission hopes to improve the MU experience and inspire a higher success rate.
“What we’re trying to do is take what experts in the field have learned and try to apply it to what we do here at Mizzou in a way that’s intentional and strategic,” Spain said.
Another way the commission will identify areas in which it can improve student success is an online exit survey, Spain said. The newly created survey will go live in November and will provide an outlet for students who have expressed their intent to discontinue their education at MU.
“What we anticipate is that it will become something that we do every semester, so that it will give us some longitudinal data over time,” Spain said.
Spain said he hopes continued growth in graduation and retention rates will follow the commission’s efforts.
“That’s the beauty of this commission,” Spain said.