revised April 30, 1997

The following efforts to promote the retention of students until they earn a degree are in place.

Campus sensitization

New student orientation

New student focus groups

Activities fair

Retention Coordinator

Enrollment Management Committee

Faculty advising

Regular faculty contact with high-risk students

Academic Advising Center

Time-to-degree guarantee

Automated new student registration

Registrar contact to promote new student contact with faculty advisors

Student satisfaction survey/strategic planning interface

AASCU/Fannie Mae retention grant

Non-returning/withdrawing student survey

Retention consultant

Campus sensitization. Regular efforts are made to communicate the need for retention-oriented attitudes, services and programs. An example is the provision of statistics related to retention during the annual faculty/administration/staff orientation held immediately prior to the beginning of classes each Fall.

New student orientation. During the 1995-96 academic year substantial research was done to upgrade new student orientation. As a result, an expanded new student orientation program was implemented Fall, 1996. An explicit focus of this orientation is retention.

New student focus groups. New student focus groups meet regularly during their first semester to follow up on their new student orientation experiences. These focus groups provide social cohesion which contributes to retention, as well as information about the strengths and weaknesses of the institution regarding retention.

Activities fair. An activities fair is held early in the Fall semester each year. The objective of the fair is to engender student participation in extra-curricular activies. Such participation is known to contribute to retention.

Retention Coordinator. A student services professional is designated retention coordinator each year. The retention coordinator for 1996-97 is Marty Foxman.

Enrollment Management Committee. The Retention Coordinator, along with the Director of Admissions, the Director of Financial Aid, the Registrar, and the Director of University Relations comprise an Enrollment Management Committee, which is chaired by the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. This committee maintains and manages a strategic enrollment management plan, of which this retention plan is a part.

Faculty advising. Northern administers a targeted faculty advising policy designed to focus faculty advising resources on students who are most likely to benefit from it. These students are required to obtain faculty approval for course registration.

Regular faculty contact with high-risk students. Faculty advisors are provided with lists of students in certain categories each semester. One of these categories is high-risk students, as defined by a low grade point average. Advisors are asked to communicate with these students in a special communication for this purpose.

Academic Advising Center. In addition to regular faculty advising procedures, the student services division maintains a supplementary advising center for high-risk students, as defined by several criteria, including grade point average, undecided major status, and scholastic or financial aid probation status. Students in these categories are required to obtain advising from specially-trained faculty in this advising center before they can register for classes each semester. The center is located in the student services area in order to give easy access to special support services for faculty advisors and their advisees.

Time-to-degree guarantee. The University offers a time-to-degree guarantee to all students who maintain satisfactory progress in the prescribed curricula for their majors. This guarantee provides an incentive for students to:

1. Register for classes in the prescribed sequence, which improves their probability of academic success.
2. Remain in school.
3. Seek competent advising.

Automated New Student Registration. All new-to-college students are provided a class schedule which qualifies them for the time-to-degree guarantee. This class schedule is specified by the faculty of the academic department which administers the major the student indicates s/he wishes to pursue. Students who accept this schedule, and continue to progress on the student education plan specified by their majors, are guaranteed access to the classes they need on the plan. This gives an incentive to pursue the optimum schedule of classes for success, as determined by the faculty, and contributes thereby to retention.

Registrar contact to promote new and undecided degree-seeking student contact with faculty advisors. Each semester the Registrar notifies new-to-college and undecided degree-seeking students who their faculty advisors are, and recommends that these students contact their faculty advisors to plan their higher education futures.

Student satisfaction survey/strategic planning interface. Each year a student satisfaction survey is administered on the Havre campus. The results of this survey are published and use by the campus community as part of the strategic planning process. The actions generated by the strategic planning process under this procedure improve retention.

AASCU/Fannie Mae retention grant. Northern is currently adminstering a grant from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities/Fannie Mae for the improvement of retention. This grant funds two activities:

1. The administration of the ACT Withdrawing/non-returning Student Survey. This survey identifies factors which contribute to attrition.
2. A campus visit by a consultant in the field of student retention. This consultant will assist us in developing our retention plan.