---

Media Relations

Student activities help 'level the playing field'

USA Today
Nov. 13, 2006

By Mary Beth Marklein

Though all students benefit from being actively engaged in classroom and campus activities, a new study says such involvement is especially helpful for underrepresented minorities and students who come to college less academically prepared. That is one of several findings in an annual report by the National Survey of Student Engagement, which studies how well students are learning in college. The study found that black first-year students who are not exposed to engaging activities are generally less likely to return for the second year of college. But if those students are involved in such activities, "they catch up to white students and return in greater numbers," says NSSE director George Kuh, an education professor at Indiana University.

Read the entire story here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-11-12-student-activities_x.htm

Learn more about NSSE: http://nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm

---

---