Michelle Kealey-Harbaugh and Rogers J. Laugand III recently returned from the Louisville, Ky., where they presented two poster sessions on retention efforts at Clarion University.
Dr. Brenda Sanders Dede, Ph.D., associate vice president of academic and student affairs; Erin Schuetz, director of SOAR; and Michelle Kealey-Harbaugh, director of residence life services, collaborated on the poster that Kealey-Harbaugh presented.
The poster, "Movin-On Week: Registering the "Missing" Freshmen," detailed the components
and the successes of Clarion University's Movin-On Week, which debuted fall 2013.
The goal of Movin-On Week was to increase retention of freshmen from the first to
the second semester. The focus was on registering first-semester students who did
not register during the normal registration period and included involving home/family
support systems by sending postcards to students' home addresses. These postcards
were timed to coincide with Thanksgiving break.
Additionally, students were contacted directly to address any issues in course scheduling,
housing, advising, finances and/or the transition to college.
Moreover, a week-long series of face-to-face events were held across campus. These
events brought together faculty and staff to assist students with any transition issues
including course registration, financial concerns and academic and social issues.
Small prizes were drawn at each of the sessions, and refreshments were served. Major
prizes were announced at the late night breakfast, where faculty and staff served
students.
The program improved the freshmen fall 2013 to spring 2014 retention rate from 88
percent to 91 percent. The program was expanded in spring 2014 to include sophomores.
Movin-On Week is scheduled for the week of Dec. 1 this year, and more
faculty and staff are being asked to participate in the events. If you are interested
in helping with this important effort, please contact Erin Schuetz at eschuetz@clarion.edu.
Dede and Rogers J. Laugand III, director of minority student services, collaborated on the poster that Laugand presented.
Clarion University faced the challenge of increasing its retention of African-American male students, many of whom were recruited from urban areas. The Golden Eagle Men's Success program was created for a group of 20 African-American male freshmen. Some components of the program included: peer mentoring, intrusive advising, personal development workshops, access to one-on-one tutoring, motivational speakers, cultural field trips and life skills seminars.
Nineteen of the 20 students returned for the spring semester; a significantly greater return rate than the 60 percent found in previous years as well as in first-year African-American males this year who did not participate in this program. Program mentors also benefited from the experience in making connections and having interactions with the freshmen.
Results from focus groups with the students in the program, as well as a comparable group of African-American males that did not participate, were presented and related to in terms of successful components along with the human and financial investment to make the program successful.
For more information on the GEMS program, please contact Laugand at laugand@clarion.edu.