NIU's retention efforts help
to ease first weeks of college
by Joe King
After the last golf cart has been unloaded, the Great Huskie Bash is over and the flurry of welcome-back events concludes, new NIU students begin to settle into campus life.
For most, that rush of activity has helped them make friends and get their bearings, setting them on a path that will end four or five years later at graduation.
For some, however, the process is more difficult. Classes are tougher than they anticipated, friends are harder to come by and the pace of life is faster than they were prepared for. Left to their own devices, many of those students would slip away from campus, victims of poor grades or homesickness, often never to return.
“Making the transition to college is not always an easy thing,” says Vice Provost Earl “Gip” Seaver. “How well, or how poorly, those first few weeks and months go can have a huge impact on whether or not a student ultimately graduates from here.”
To ensure that newly arriving students are finding their niche and, when necessary, getting the assistance they need to settle into their new social and academic environment, the provost's office has placed a special emphasis this fall on retention programs aimed specifically at first-year students.
The Academic Advising Center
Efforts to ensure that as many students as possible make it to graduation day now begin the moment that students set foot on campus, thanks to the newly created Academic Advising Center.
“We are the point of first contact for any student who comes to orientation without having specified a major or college affiliation,” says Michael “Brody” Broshears, director of the center.
That is no small task, as nearly 30 percent of any incoming class arrives without selecting a major.
“That is one of the things we help them understand; that it is not uncommon for incoming students to be undecided,” Broshears says. “We stress that sometimes coming to college undecided on a major is an advantage because it forces them to really think about what they want to do and look at all of the academic programs available.”
The Academic Advising Center assists in that process, with advisers helping students assess their interests, skills and abilities and pointing them in appropriate directions.
As they journey through that process with students, counselors also work with them to make sure they continue to progress toward a degree and complete general education requirements and other courses that are widely applicable.
The center offers the same services to the legions of students who change their initial majors which, according to some studies, is something that 65 percent to 85 percent of students who go to college will do at least once.
“We want students to be successful. Our goal is to give deciding students the support they need to make an informed decision,” says Broshears, who is quick to point out that his office is no substitute for regular counselors within the colleges. “We are here to deal with a very specific population. Once a student chooses a major, we hand them off to counselors in the appropriate college who are better equipped to meet their needs at that time.”
REACH (Retention Efforts for All inComing Huskies)
College can be a scary, lonely place for some freshmen who are far from home with few friends. Identifying those students and providing them with a helping hand is the goal of the First-Year Connections program.
When launched as a pilot program in 2003, REACH was aimed directly at students who did not have some sort of built-in support system, such as membership on an athletic team or being part of ROTC, a Focused Interest Group or a UNIV 101 class. The program was dormant last year, but after review was revived and expanded this year to reach out to as many freshmen as possible.
At the heart of REACH is a group of upperclass students who start calling new students during the third week of the semester to see how they are faring. Callers ask newcomers a series of questions intended to assess how they are doing academically and socially, whether they are experiencing any problems or having difficulty dealing with stress and whether they have visited with an academic adviser.
“The calls are designed to help us learn if these students have connected with the university,” says Scott Peska, who leads the program. “If we find a student who appears to be having difficulty, the REACH caller will ask more questions to see what areas he or she needs help with and then share a list of potential resources.”
If callers identify students who are not thriving academically, they will make them aware of campus resources, such as the tutoring labs and the Writing Center . For those having trouble fitting in, callers will share their experiences with different clubs and organizations and let them know about counseling and other resources available through the Division of Student Affairs to help them adjust.
Follow-up calls to those students who needed assistance are made around the eighth week of the semester.
Peska also is soliciting input from faculty members who identify students who might benefit from this service.
“Our hope is that we can help these students establish a personal connection with the campus to help them persevere through their first few months,” he says.
The Tutoring Center
Many students arrive on campus unprepared for the rigors of college academics. The workload, the pace, a lack of direct supervision and myriad other factors can leave students drowning in their course work.
For them, ACCESS (Access to Courses and Careers through Educational Support Services) provides three tutoring centers, including the new Tutoring Center in Grant South, which is geared particularly for students who have just a few questions or only require short term help with a course.
The large, bright modern facility in the basement of Grant South replaces two smaller centers previously housed in the Grant Tower complex. The tutoring center offers assistance primarily in mathematics and a variety of general education courses.
The center has a staff of qualified peer tutors to help those in need better understand the course material they are struggling with. However, their assistance goes beyond just getting them through the next test.
“We try to step back and look at their general study habits. We talk to them about things such as reading strategies, note-taking, test preparation – a whole range of things that sound fundamental, but which are very important parts of academic success,” says Shevawn Eaton, director of ACCESS.
Providing students with academic assistance and skills can often prove vital to getting them on the path to graduation, Eaton says. “If students can master things academically, it feeds into their positive experience at Northern.”
The fact that they receive that assistance from other students is another key aspect of the program, she says.
“Retaining students requires two levels of integration: academic and social,” she says. “We contribute on both levels, helping them attain academic success and by connecting them with upperclassmen who can act as academic mentors.”
9-12-05
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