Education Commons^™

They Just Named Me Head Of Retention: Now What Do I Do?, Anne Marie Casey, Richard Nicols

Publications

Retention specialists come from many areas of higher education. Some, such as a First Year Programs Director, seem like a very natural fit. Others come from departments not traditionally associated with retention. At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which offers degree programs primarily in STEM fields, the Director of First Year Programs (FYP) had been considered the informal retention specialist of record until late 2013 when the Library Director was recruited to take on the newly created position of Dean of Retention and Student Success. This paper chronicles the ways in which the two colleagues learned about the state of retention at …

The Global Competition For International Students As Future Immigrants: The Role Of Ontario Universities In Translating Government Policy Into Institutional Practice, Amira El Masri, Melisa Choubak, Rashelle Litchmore

Publications and Scholarship

This project examines the implications for the roles and responsibilities of Ontario universities in offering programs and services to international students, given Ontario’s policy imperative to target international students as permanent residents. Through a comprehensive mapping exercise, this project proposes to offer a system wide perspective on gaps in alignment of policy and practice, establish key benchmarks for international student programs and services and propose globally competitive best practices.

Three main research questions will guide this study:

• How are provincial and national policies to attract international students as future immigrants acknowledged by Ontario universities in their mission statement/goals/visions and/or strategic …

Resiliency Of Community College Students With Adverse Childhood Experiences, Laura Elizabeth Brogden

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as defined by Drs. Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda are prevalent in the general population of the United States. These childhood traumas are strongly related to risky behaviors and poor health outcomes. The results of childhood stress may influence students at community colleges. This study of community college students with identified adverse childhood experiences will describe their perceived experiences in community colleges as they relate to their success and completion. This study is done in a framework of resilience in order to identify factors which may be influential in students’ progress and completion. Keywords: community college, …

Creating A Comprehensive Early Warning System To Further Student Success And Retention, Shane P. Hammond

Shane P Hammond

Student retention is critical to successful outcomes in higher education today. This completed project is about how to better track a student's performance and work with those struggling academically so that they are given the tools to better academic performance. This project reviewed the Academic Deficiency Report System at Greenfield Community College and identified flaws in the process that did not serve the students well. Based on the author's research of early warning models in the literature and best practices across the state of Massachusetts, an Early Progress Report and notification process was developed. This new version of the early …

Pathways To Student Success: A Multiple Case Study On Four-Year Colleges’ Organizational Change In Performance Funding States, Lindsay K. Wayt

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Federal and state policies have recently moved the higher education accountability focus from access to completion. As completion and other student success accountability measures are put in place, institutions are going through organizational change to accommodate these new policies and to adjust their focus onto student success measures such as retention and graduation rates. This multiple case study’s purpose was to describe the institutional efforts and changes at small- to medium-sized, four-year public institutions in states where at least 20% or more of state funds are or are planned to soon be allocated based on performance metrics. The findings of …

Library Resource Usage And Student Success At Eastern Kentucky University, Kelly Smith, Jens Arneson, Matthew Irvin, Kwan Yi

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Library impact studies at many universities have indicated a correlation between library resource usage and student success; for example, the University of Wollongong, the University of Minnesota, Murray State University, the University of Huddersfield, and York University have all found that increased library usage correlates with student success, and that students who do not use the library at all have significantly lower outcomes. To add to this growing body of evidence, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries analyzed undergraduate usage of online library resources and found a similar effect: on average, EKU students who logged in to access the Libraries’ online resources …

Non-Traditional Students And Transfer: A Focus On Military And Veteran Students, Edward Trombley, Mj Caro

Publications

Non-traditional students, particularly military and veteran students, pose challenges for universities to serve efficiently and well. For the purpose of this discussion, the non-traditional student is defined as one with a delayed entry to college after high school completion, who may bring time-management conflicts due to work and family commitments, and who may have a variety of transcripted and non-transcripted credits to consider for transfer or advanced standing.