2008 Woodie Awards
About Last Week
Finding answers for poor retention
Jackie Ryan
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Opinion
Retention-this noun seems to have recently replaced "diversity" as the buzz word at Drew University. The class of 2010 was down 91 students last spring-why are they all leaving?
I've enjoyed my time here at Drew, and while freshman year was an adjustment for me-as I imagine it was for most of my classmates-I stuck it out and have enjoyed the last few years very much. But there were definitely some faces that disappeared soon after orientation. This happens at every school, but it hits hardest in a small community. One of Drew's main selling points is that The Forest is a small liberal arts college, with small classrooms and close student-teacher ratios. Wouldn't that make for a more tight-knit community that made sure no one was lost on their four-year journey? I thought so.
I am happy to see that the University has taken steps toward understanding our retention problem. Now that we know just how bad our retention rate is, we can start to understand why. I hope the Retention Committee sticks to its promise to get to the bottom of this problem.
One thing I always remember hearing as a freshman is that Drew is a "stepping stone" school for a lot of freshmen. They come here for a semester or two, in order to pull their grades up so that they can transfer to another school, which was presumably their first choice. A lot of that went around when I was a freshman, but I haven't heard that term in a long time. I think that's because Drew is a school that people want to go to now, and not a school they merely settle for. Why? I'm not sure that I can pin down the exact reason, but Drew's atmosphere has definitely changed in the past few years. It's become a more exciting place, and students seem to care a lot more. I don't know whether I'm noticing that because I became progressively more involved, or because something did really change at Drew. I do know now that when I tell someone that I go to Drew, the response is more along the lines of, "Wow, that's a good school," compared to the "Where?" that I received as a freshman.
I've enjoyed my time here at Drew, and while freshman year was an adjustment for me-as I imagine it was for most of my classmates-I stuck it out and have enjoyed the last few years very much. But there were definitely some faces that disappeared soon after orientation. This happens at every school, but it hits hardest in a small community. One of Drew's main selling points is that The Forest is a small liberal arts college, with small classrooms and close student-teacher ratios. Wouldn't that make for a more tight-knit community that made sure no one was lost on their four-year journey? I thought so.
I am happy to see that the University has taken steps toward understanding our retention problem. Now that we know just how bad our retention rate is, we can start to understand why. I hope the Retention Committee sticks to its promise to get to the bottom of this problem.
One thing I always remember hearing as a freshman is that Drew is a "stepping stone" school for a lot of freshmen. They come here for a semester or two, in order to pull their grades up so that they can transfer to another school, which was presumably their first choice. A lot of that went around when I was a freshman, but I haven't heard that term in a long time. I think that's because Drew is a school that people want to go to now, and not a school they merely settle for. Why? I'm not sure that I can pin down the exact reason, but Drew's atmosphere has definitely changed in the past few years. It's become a more exciting place, and students seem to care a lot more. I don't know whether I'm noticing that because I became progressively more involved, or because something did really change at Drew. I do know now that when I tell someone that I go to Drew, the response is more along the lines of, "Wow, that's a good school," compared to the "Where?" that I received as a freshman.
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