Data to Action: Freshmen Retention Project

Originally designed to improve the persistence of freshman students and due to the success of the Fall Registration Project, PSU has expanded the original project into a year-long, Freshman Retention Project and incorporated financial awards to assist students in completing their academic plans. Project Working Group Mirela Blekic (University Studies), James Ofsink (Financial Aid), Sukhwant Jhaj (University Studies), Dan Fortmiller (Enrollment Management and Student Affairs), Rowanna Carpenter (University Studies), Paloma Harrison (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences), Martha Dyson (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences), Becki Ingersoll (Academic & Career Services), Becky Sanchez (School of Business), Robert Mercer (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences), Amanda Nguyen (Business Affairs), Louise McDonald (Business Affairs). Project Descriptions About 10% of freshmen students who are admitted in fall do not transition to winter term and about 15-20% of the students who complete their freshmen year do not return the following fall. In addition, students who have major concerns about financing their education and students who are not sure about their plans (as identified in FRINQ Prior Learning Survey) tend to leave at a higher rate. Similarly, students with HS GPA below 3.0 and conditionally admitted students tend to leave at a higher rate. Finally, about 80% of the students who indicate (in the FRINQ End-of-Year Survey) they are not planning to return the following fall do not come back. These projects are designed to intervene with students at critical junctions in their educational experience at Portland State University and offer financial awards as needed once academic plans have been created. Action Items Ongoing: as students come in for advising, advisers pay attention to and address risk factors and areas of focus. Outreach and intervention at critical points: Contact students who did not register using information provided in the retention database o Fall to winter registration o Spring to fall registration Communicate/intervene with students identified as leaving or at risk of leaving. Include financial award as form of intervention: FRINQ Faculty and Freshman Retention Financial Awards Develop financial and academic plans with students who qualify for awards Document intervention and any interaction in the retention database. Check registration status periodically during the critical points of the year. Communicate/intervene with students who have not registered (encourage registration/offer help).
These actions will reduce

Key Barriers Preponderance of students needing intervention. Financial resource availability. Institutional capacity.

These actions will achieve

Goal To identify students who are at risk of not succeeding in their first year and not returning in their second year and to provide intervention helping students to stay at PSU and complete their education.
These actions will ultimately lead to

Increased retention and student success.

Special Assistant to the Provost

Decision Matrix Key: (R) Recommend, (A) Agree, (P) Perform, (I) Input, (D) Decide. Establish Fall Retention Project Promote registration for winter and fall classes Identify students at risk of not returning Contact students and provide intervention Provide awards to students in need of financial assistance Provide continuous intervention throughout the academic year focusing on four identified areas

A A

A A

R P P R R R

D P P P P P P I P P P R/ P

Recommendations and Decisions Incorporate and expand Fall Registration Project, include financial award and rename the project into Freshmen Retention Project. Fall Registration Project: 1. Provide necessary intervention to identified freshmen students who are at risk of not registering for fall term. 2. Coordinate efforts between advisers, the Financial Aid office and the Bursars office to facilitate registration of these at risk students. Freshman Retention Project 1. Reach out to and intervene with freshman students during and immediately after the end of their first year at critical points and throughout their first year at PSU. 2. Focus on four areas of intervention including a. Conditionally admitted students, b. Students with HS GPA below 3.0, c. Students with financial concern, d. Students unsure about their plans FRINQ Faculty Financial Award 1. Reduce the impact of financial concern and financial need on freshman student success and retention 2. Faculty members nominate prospective recipients for the FRINQ Faculty Financial Award 3. Students required to submit an academic and financial plan Freshmen Retention Project Financial Award 1. Use a combination of centralized and decentralized decision making 2. Identify students to receive awards geared towards completing their academic goals 3. Advisers and Bursars office staff identify potential students 4. FRPFA committee makes final decisions on which students are selected 5. Educational component must be included (such as in FRINQ Faculty Financial Award) 6. Amounts to be divided between spring and the following fall in order to facilitate second year planning and persistence

Award Final Decision Comm.

Council of Academic Deans

Implementing Department

Faculty Senate Committee

Admissions and Records

Project Working Group

Executive Committee

VP Student Affair

Advising Council

Public Meetings

Provost

UCC

ARC

Funding Required Amount Purpose $50,000-100,000 Reduce the impact of financial concern and financial need on freshman student success and retention Timeframe and Metrics Timeframe: Review performance after fourth week of winter and fall term. Metric Name/Description Project reach Impact of outreach and intervention on students Impact of financial awards on students Formula / Method # of students served # and % of students who are served and retained # and % of students who received award and are retained

Timeframe and Metrics Timeframe: Review performance after fourth week of winter and fall term. Metric Name/Description Project reach Impact of outreach and intervention on students Impact of financial awards on students Results, April 2012 Fall Registration Project o Total number of students contacted (includes full and part-time students): 305 o Number of first-time full-time students who registered after the contact: 98 Freshman Retention Project o Total number of students contacted during fall to winter critical point outreach: 135 o Number of first-time full-time students who registered after the contact: 114 o Number of First-time Full-time Freshmen registered after the contact: 75 (65.79% of the contacted students) FRINQ Faculty Financial Award o Total students nominated: 22 o Students who received the award: 18 As part of this project winter term retention rates (fall-to-winter enrollment of first-time full-time freshmen) for various segments of students were calculated. Freshmen Retention Rates: Fall 2011 Freshmen Cohort Returned Winter 2012 Fall 2011 to Winter 2012 Retention Rate Fall 2011 Freshmen Cohort 1204 1115 92.61% 1204 Formula / Method # of students served # and % of students who are served and retained # and % of students who received award and are retained

Fall 2011 First-Time Full-time Freshmen Cohort and Fall-to-Winter Retention HS GPA, Conditional Admission, Financial Concern, Intent, Residency Retention Rate for Students with HS GPA Below 3.0 93.43% (128/137) Retention Rate for Students with HS GPA 3.0 92.5% (987/1067) Retention Rate for Conditionally Admitted Students 97.1% (67/69) Retention Rate for Regularly Admitted Students 92.33% (1048/1135) Retention Rate for Students with Major Financial Concern* 91.94% (114/124) Retention Rate for Students with Some or No Financial Concern* 93.16% (177/190) Retention Rate for Students Unsure about their Plans 96% (96/100) Retention Rate for Students Planning to Graduate from PSU 93.54% (608/650) Retention Rate for Resident Students 93.27% (845/906) Retention Rate for Non-resident Students 90.6% (270/298) Academic Standing/Holds/Finances (n = 89) Non-returning Students in Good Academic Standing Non-returning Students on Academic Warning/Probation Non-returning Students on Academic Dismissal Non-returning Students with any kind of Hold Non-returning Students with Financial Hold Non-returning Students with Balance between $100 - $1000 Non-returning Students with balance over $1000 73.03% (65/89) 24.72% (22/89) (0/89) 71.91% (64/89) 33.71% (30/89) 8.99% (8/89) 37.08% (33/89)

*Note: Major financial concern category is a combination of finances indicated as students top concern and students major concern about their ability to finance education. Category of some or no financial concern is a combination of finances indicated as top concern and some or no concern about students ability to finance their education.