Acorn

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Drew Cranisky The retention rate of first-year students has fallen for the third time in a row, to 81 percent for the current sophomore class.

The Drew University Class of 2010 returned to campus for their sophomore year with 91 fewer faces than when they first arrived in Fall 2006, according to a copy of a retention report obtained by The Acorn. Drew's first-year retention rate for last year was 81.1 percent, the lowest since 2001.

The report was commissioned by the Retention Committee, which was formed by Vice President of College Admissions & Financial Assistance Mary Beth Carey last spring in response to falling first-year retention rates. Associate Professor of Statistics Sarah Abramowitz was asked to analyze the retention statistics of the class of 2010-of which 390 of the original 481 first-year students returned for their sophomore year-to identify possible root causes for retention issues and provide recommendations for improvement.

The report divides the 91 non-returning students into two groups. According to the report, 68 first-year students left Drew voluntarily, while 23 first-year students were asked to leave for academic reasons.

Understanding why those 23 students were dismissed is a primary concern for Provost Pamela Gunter-Smith.

"Did we misread their admissions pieces? Did we recruit some students, for whatever reasons, who weren't academically a good fit for Drew?" she said. "It's not only about who you bring in, but how you keep them. What we have to have in place is a way to help students make the leap from high school to college."

The report focuses only on first-year retention rates because, according to Gunter-Smith, it is the first year that is the most crucial for retaining students.

"Once students make that leap from year one to year two, if you look at retention rates in previous years, retention rates are pretty good," she said.

Identifying the reasons why 68 first-year students left Drew voluntarily-46 of whom had passing grade point averages above 2.5-is another question raised in the report.

While there was no statistical difference in retention rate by gender or race, the report indicated that departure was more likely to be voluntary for females and students who were Caucasian or who did not report ethnicity. According to Abramowitz, out-of-state and commuter students who left Drew were disproportionately represented in the report's findings.

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