Core Component 4.C | SIU Carbondale HLC Accreditation | SIU

DRAFT

4.C The institution demonstrates a commitment to educational improvement through ongoing attention to retention, persistence, and completion rates in its degree and certificate programs.

1. The institution has defined goals for student retention, persistence, and completion that are ambitious but attainable and appropriate to its mission, student populations, and educational offerings.
2. The institution collects and analyzes information on student retention, persistence, and completion of its programs.
3. The institution uses information on student retention, persistence, and completion of programs to make improvements as warranted by the data.
4. The institution’s processes and methodologies for collecting and analyzing information on student retention, persistence, and completion of programs reflect good practice. (Institutions are not required to use IPEDS definitions in their determination of persistence or completion rates. Institutions are encouraged to choose measures that are suitable to their student populations, but institutions are accountable for the validity of their measures.)

Argument

4.C.1. SIU Presidents, Chancellors, and Provosts have initiated several endeavors to improve retention, persistence, and completion rates. The first initiative began with Chancellor Cheng in 2013 when she brought a consulting firm, Farnum and Associates, to campus to evaluate our retention, persistence, and completion efforts. Upon receiving the Farnum Report, a Retention Task Force led by Dr. Laurie Achenbach and composed of administrators, faculty, and staff met to develop strategies and action plans to increase our retention, persistence and completion rates. The work of this task force targeted the following populations of students: a) academically under-prepared, b) exploratory, c) first-time, full-time freshmen, d) all undergraduates, and e) students of color. They developed specific activities for each of their goals, assigned people to oversee the activities, and established deadlines for each activity. The retention goals (p. 3) in the 2014-2016 Retention Plan are clearly defined based on data collected in the Farnum Report.

SIU President Randy Dunn's State of the System Address in 2016 (slide 9) cited the institution’s progress toward the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s goal to increase the number of Illinoisan’s who have a college degree or post-secondary certificate to sixty percent by 2025. Illinois institutions were meeting annual benchmarks between 2008 and 2014, then the overall degree production across the state began to fall slightly short of the annual benchmarks. While the SIU administrators and faculty have actively initiated measures to turn the tide to increase degree completion rates, it has been difficult given trends across the state. 

Former Chancellor Montemagno referred to the 2014-2016 Retention Plan in his weekly communication on March 22, 2018 and in a report titled, Revitalizing Southern Illinois University Carbondale: An Eight-Month Update. He presented the following completion goals for the campus: “Currently, 27 percent of the freshmen who enroll at SIU graduate in four years, while 44 percent graduate in six years. If we dedicate ourselves to the magic of retention, we can change these rates to 55 percent for all students in four years and 65 percent in six years by 2025. I believe we can do it with the commitment of every faculty and staff member. Please join me in making that commitment.” In the spring of 2018, the university hired an Associate Chancellor for Enrollment Management, Dr. Jennifer DeHaemers, who has focused on developing a strategic, student centered plan for recruiting new students.

At the May and September Board of Trustees meetings in 2019, Interim Provost and Vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, Meera Komarraju presented reports summarizing current goals and initiatives. The institution hopes to increase enrollment to 15,000 within five years, representing a 22% increase. The institution has also set the following targets for retention and completion for 2025: a first year retention rate of 85% and a six-year graduation rate of 65%. Retention, persistence and completion rates for the campus have been a top priority for administrators. The institution is working together to meet the completion goals for 2025.

4.C.2. The Office of Institutional Research and Studies collects and reports data on student retention, persistence, and completion for the university. Academic Reports are available for degrees conferred by college for 2013-2018 for BS, MS, and PhD degrees. The Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System's (IPEDS) definitions for persistence and completion are used by the Office of Institutional Research to report trends. SIU conferred a total of 4589 degrees in 2018. While SIU’s total enrollment was 12,817 in the fall of 2018 and 11,695 in the fall of 2019, representing an 8.75% decline, this decline is less than the decline between 2017 and 2018, which was 11.93%. 

Retention and persistence data for undergraduate, first-time, full-time freshmen students (FTFT) and transfer students show a moderate increase in retention rates (10.5%) for the 2011 and 2018 student cohorts. For the undergraduates in the FTFT freshmen cohorts, SIUC retained 61.0% of the Fall 2011 cohort and 75.1% of the Fall 2018 cohort. For the undergraduate transfer student cohorts, the institution retained 77.9% of the Fall 2011 cohort and 82.2% of the Fall 2018 cohort. The data indicates that SIUC's activities and efforts to support and retain first-time, full-time freshmen and transfer students in their first year are having a positive effect on the students.

In addition to the positive gains in first year retention rates, the institution is also seeing increases in persistence between the sophomore and junior years. FTFT freshmen cohorts in 2011 and 2017 persisted through the second year at the following rates: 48.1% and 61.5%, representing a 13.4% improvement in persistence rates. The fall 2013 cohort had a six-year completion rate of 47.6%.

A similar pattern is evident among some of the first generation cohorts. For first generation white students seeking a bachelors degree, 54% of the 2011 cohort and 64% of the 2014 cohort persisted through the second year. For first generation Hispanic students seeking a bachelors degree, only 43% of the 2011 cohort and 50% of the 2014 cohort persisted through the second year. For first generation Black students seeking a bachelors degree, only 30% of the 2011 cohort and 36% of the 2014 cohort persisted through the second year. It is interesting to note that 60% of the 2011 cohort and 71% of the 2014 cohort of first generation Asian students seeking a bachelor's degree persisted through the second year. These averages exceed the overall averages for FTFT freshmen. 

4.C.3. From the Teresa Farnum Report (2013) to the most recent Recruitment and Retention report (2019) by Interim Provost Komarraju, there is evidence of administrators reviewing the enrollment, retention, persistence, and completion trends at SIUC. The challenge for the institution has been maintaining focus on various initiatives begun by previous administrators or task forces. As a result of the recommendations provided in the Teresa Farnum report, the Retention Task Force  recommended the following actions: pilot block scheduling, implementation of an early alert and intervention program, improvement of student learning and success in high DFW courses, decrease in the number of holds, enhancement of outreach/services to freshmen identified as “at risk”, increased support for undecided majors, and improved UNIV 101 content and delivery. Retired Provost Susan Ford provided a summary of the outcomes of many of the initiatives in her report to former Chancellor Montemagno in 2018.

Chancellor Montemagno charged the provost’s office to work with deans and others across campus to revisit the 2014-16 retention plan, identify what worked, what should be revived, and what should be added. The Chancellor outlined additional steps that were underway to address retention, such as centralizing advisement, increasing academic support (coaching, tutoring), student mentoring, improving orientation, increasing diversity initiatives, enhancing career services, and increasing student engagement (Chancellor's 8-month report). Despite the high turnover in top leadership and the untimely passing of Chancellor Montemagno in October 2018, the University has taken action on several recommendations made by the retention task force through the collaborative efforts of multiple units across campus. This section describes improvements that have been made across campus based on retention, persistence, and completion data.

Mentoring and Advisement for Diverse Students Initiatives

From 2011 to 2018, the Suder Foundation supported the First Scholars program at SIUC, which provided financial, academic, and social support for qualified first-generation students. This program used data from a Strengths Survey and other data sources to develop a strategic plan for each student's success. Students were mentored by upperclassmen, advised by counselors, and resided in Living, Learning Communities on campus. During the course of this program, __#__ students were served and their completion rate was __%___.

The Quality Initiative project for the campus focused on identifying the demographic characteristics and academic indicators of the institution's first-generation students. It was found that first-generation students comprise nearly half of the undergraduate student body, yet a considerable discrepancy exists between the retention and completion rates for first-generation students relative to non-first-generation students. In response to the institution's continued focus on the needs of first-generation students, the First Saluki Center was officially launched in Fall 2019. A description of the center's services can be found in section 3.D.1. 

Orientation and Academic Support Initiative

Even though University College was dissolved due to budgetary concerns, SIUC continues to offer UCOL101 courses. The UCOL101 course was redesigned from a 3 credit-hour to a 1 credit-hour course. The content was revised to introduce students to resources on the SIUC campus as well as to educate students about the history of the university and the region. The goal of the course was revised in order to facilitate the forming of relationships between freshmen students and the campus community in an effort to improve student retention. A team of 5 non-tenure track instructors were hired to deliver all sections of UCOL/UNIV101.  Revisions to the UCOL101 curriculum included adding a 1 credit-hour lab for provisionally admitted students, a second-semester (UCOL/UNIV103) course for provisional and at-risk students, and an upper level professional school/career development (UCOL/UNIV301) course.

Advisement and Early Warning Initiatives

Retention efforts and initiatives continue to evolve as new approaches are evaluated for effectiveness. One of the major initiatives was the formation of the Advisory Council on Academic Advisement (ACAA), which operated from 2012-2017 and included the following activities: an Advising Task Force Sandbox, the ACAA Advisement Syllabus Connections, and the Advisor Training Pilot. Additional improvements include the addition of software to assists advisors, additional services provided by Student Affairs, and enhanced programming for new students. The Education Advisory Board's (EAB) Student Success Collaborativeprogram improves advising and tracking of students progress, and it uses predictive analytics to identify patterns of student success (and failure) for enhanced advisement, particularly for at-risk and off-path students. GradesFirst is an early warning identification and intervention program used by advisors. In the spring of 2017, DegreeWorks became available for students to track their academic progress and to plan their education pathways. It also allows advisors to provide more personalized support to students.

Student Engagement Initiatives

Student Affairs has centralized co-curricular activities to enhance and expand student engagement. The Living Learning Communities have engaged faculty in meals and activities in the dorms. Each LLC is unique, allowing students, faculty and staff to tailor their experience. Faculty involvement may include programs, shared meals in the dining halls, presentations in the residence halls, tutoring and mentoring. Some LLCs may also offer special equipment or research materials. The Center for Learning Support Services provides academic coaching, workshops, and tutoring. New Students are better supported through redesigned programming including New Student Orientations (NSO) with separate sessions for family members and students and a Week of Welcome to introduce the new students to the campus community.

Policy Changes

In addition to the initiatives cited above, the institution has implemented policy changes to improve retention and persistence. These include the following: 

• Course repeats. When a student re-takes a course, the new grade is allowed to replace a previous failing grade in the computation of the GPA, greatly decreasing time to achieve graduation GPA. 
• Incomplete grade assignments. The time to complete course material once an incomplete is assigned was reduced from one year to one semester (or grade automatically changes to F) to prevents incomplete grades from lingering and slowing progress to degree. 
• Senior Institution Hours. These were reduced to make transfer more desirable and to assist in faster completion of degrees for transfer students, while maintaining state standards. 
• Admission Changes. In 2012, SIU began to implement an auto-admit standard for applications with ACT composite scores at or above 23 or a high school GPA, in core courses, at or above a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. In 2014, a slight revision was made to allow for either a combination of an ACT composite score at or above 23 and a high school grade point average of 2.0 OR an ACT composite score at or above 18 and a high school grade point average of 3.0.

 4.C.4. All SIUC stakeholders (administrators, faculty, staff, advisors, and local communities) closely monitor the enrollment, retention, and persistence trends. As was stated in 4.C.2. of this argument, the Office of Institutional Research uses the IPEDS definitions for persistence and completion to report trends. Deans, school directors, and department chairs are provided with current enrollment numbers after the tenth day of the beginning of the fall semester. Then, chairs/directors set goals for the year for each of their programs. They are also encouraged to share how they are using the enrollment, retention, and completion data to inform recruitment and retention strategies within their programs to complement the work of the retention coordinator for the college at college level executive council meetings.

Sources

• BOT SIUC Enrollment Report 5.16.2019
• BOT SIUC Recruitment and Retention Report 9.11.2019
• IBHE Illinois 60 by 2025
• SIU State of the System Address 2016
• SIUC Chancellor Montemagnos Blog 3.22.17
• SIUC Degrees Conferred 2014-2018.pdf
• SIUC First Generation Retention and Persistence Data
• SIUC First Saluki Center
• SIUC First Scholars
• SIUC Program Enrollments 2015-2019.pdf
• SIUC Quality Initiative Panel Review and Report 2019
• SIUC Retention Assessment - Farnum Report
• SIUC Retention Plan 2014.2016.pdf
• SIUC Revitalizing SIUC - An Eight-Month Update
• SIUC S. Ford (retired) Report. Retention update for Chancellor Montemagno 3-2018
• SIUC Undergraduate Graduation and Retention Rates (New + Transfers) 2010-2019
• SIUC Undergraduate Graduation and Retention Rates (New)2010-2019
• SIUC Undergraduate Graduation and Retention Rates (Transfers)2010-2019