IU WILL APPLY $8 MILLION LILLY GRANT TOWARD IMPROVED STUDENT RETENTION

(Editor's note: Project directors Deborah A. Freund and William M. Plater can be reached at 812-855-9973 and 317-274-4500, respectively.)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's $8 million grant from the Lilly Endowment will be used to implement a program for improved student retention on all eight campuses through the next 10 years, IU President Myles Brand announced today.

IU's grant was the largest of the total $24 million in educational attainment grants awarded by Lilly Endowment to five public universities and several independent colleges in the state. The grants are part of the Endowment's continuing efforts to address the issue of Indiana's ranking of 47th in the nation in the percentage of college-educated workers.

"Indiana University shares the Lilly Endowment's concern that too few of the state's citizens hold baccalaureate degrees, and we're pleased to become partners with the Endowment in a concerted effort to increase that number," said Brand. He added that while the success of the Endowment's statewide effort depends on the ability of each college and university to improve its retention and graduation rates, IU's program is critical because 23 percent of the state's undergraduates are enrolled at one of its campuses.

The proposal IU submitted to the Endowment is an action plan for increasing student retention at the university through the year 2007, with particular emphasis on a student's most vulnerable time frame for dropping out: between the freshman and sophomore years. "We probably won't see the full impact of our interventions on the number of baccalaureate degree holders until at least six years following their implementation," Brand cautioned. "However, there are other intermediate benchmarks that are extremely good predictors of graduation rates and number of graduates. If we increase the first-to-second-year retention rate for a particular freshman class, we can accurately predict that students from that class will graduate in higher proportions." It isn't enough simply "to set the bar high and see which students can jump over it," Brand said. "Instead, we must help students on all campuses become active learners, especially during the crucial first year."

The proposal was developed with participation from across the university, Brand emphasized. Project directors Deborah A. Freund, vice chancellor for academic affairs at IU Bloomington, and William M. Plater, dean of the faculties at IUPUI, were assisted by coordinators Mary Anne Baker, professor of psychology at IU Southeast; Scott Evenbeck, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education at IUPUI; Pamela Walters, associate dean of the College of Arts and Science, IU Bloomington; and J. Herman Blake, vice chancellor for undergraduate education at IUPUI.

IU's plan is aimed at the following goals: increasing learning in foundational skill courses, success in first-year introductory courses, and articulation among majors and schools; creating a stronger student community and greater student integration into campus academic life; providing more out-of-classroom support for learning; improving advising and career development for students; and stepping up contact with students who are at risk of leaving.

Clustering students into sub-communities for classroom instruction and out-of-class learning activities, and implementing an approach called Supplemental Instruction (SI), are among the key strategies. Already in place at many colleges and universities in the United States and abroad, SI has also already been implemented at the IUPUI campus. The SI program identifies "high-risk" courses and provides students with skills for organization and mastery of that discipline.

Students who are undecided about a major or who change majors are also at greater risk of dropping out than those who settle early on a major and stick with it. "Students who are set back significantly when they want to change majors are more likely to leave than those who change with minimal loss of credit," said Freund. While some barriers to changing majors are unavoidable, IU wants to reduce the artificial and bureaucratic barriers. Similarly, students wanting to transfer between IU campuses or to another institution in the state are more likely to drop out if they lose significant progress as a result, officials said. IU's intent through the grant is to make such transfers easier.

Continual contact with students to reinforce their goal of a degree also enhances the likelihood they'll stay in college, so IU plans to increase its interpersonal, career and academic advisory contacts with students.

The single biggest challenge IU faces is that much of its student population outside of Bloomington doesn't fit the profile of the "traditional" college student, who is more likely to complete college. Full-time students at IU have relatively high rates of retention to the second year -- 77 percent, compared to 49 percent for part-time students. The graduation rates for full- and part-time students are, respectively, 60 percent and 8 percent.

Students older than the "traditional" college student are also less likely to return for a second year. "These are areas in which the key differences among campuses must be taken into account in our planned interventions," Freund commented.

IU officials expressed confidence that the project will eventually have a significant impact on the number of Indiana college graduates and in boosting the state's national ranking in college-educated workers. Plater said he thinks "the Lilly Endowment has created a unique opportunity for Indiana to leapfrog ahead of other states in the educational attainment of its citizens. In our proposal we emphasized the nature of IU as a single institution with multiple ways of serving a complex state."