Staying Power: Colleges Work To Improve Retention Rates - Statistical Data Included

Black Issues in Higher Education, Oct 26, 2000 by Hilary Hurd

HAMPTON, VA.

Two years ago, Wilbur Powell was a first-semester freshman. He slept too much, watched too much TV and was not excited about the classes he was taking. By the end of the semester, he had a 1.3 grade-point average. Rudea Downs also was a first-semester freshman. She crammed for exams, did not manage her time, enjoyed her newfound sense of freedom and also slept too much. By the end of the semester, she had a 1.5 GPA.

Both Hampton University students, who had always done well in high school, received the dreaded letter from the dean's office notifying them that they were on academic probation. Downs and Powell would now be required to attend Friday seminars about academic success and regularly meet with a faculty adviser.

They, like other students in the same boat at the historically Black Virginia university, had one semester to raise their GPA to at least a 2.0, or else.

"Basically the message is, `Get grades up or leave,' "says Dr. Rodney Smith, Hampton's vice president for planning and dean of the Graduate College, who was formerly vice president of administrative services. "We're kind of taking the tough-love approach. If the students don't come to the workshops or meet with the dean, administration takes that as a sign that the student is not interested in staying at Hampton."

The tough-love approach worked for Downs and Powell. Downs raised her GPA the next semester to a 2.3, and Powell ended his freshman year with a 3.6.

"I was only aiming for a 3.0," says Powell, 20, now in his junior year. He admits to being a little scared about going to college in the first place. He says he didn't know what to expect. Tune management was one problem.

"Once I wrote down my schedule, I realized I had a lot of time," Powell says. His faculty mentor had him set goals and reviewed his schedule with him weekly.

Powell, who's from Bronx, N.Y., and a first-generation college student, now conducts the time management seminars with students who are where he was about two years ago.

"I tell the students to take things one day at a time," he says. Changing his major from music to math, Powell is a resident assistant in his dormitory and also tutors college-bound students in the Hampton City Public Schools.

"Everything is perfect," Powell says.

LIFEBLOOD OF INSTITUTIONS

But everything is not perfect -- especially not the retention rates at historically Black colleges and universities.

Many institutions, including non-HBCUs, admit that until fairly recently retention has not been their main focus because they have been more concerned with getting students into their respective schools than with keeping them there. Yet, how to retain and graduate students is one of the major issues all higher education institutions are wrestling with.

"Retention is the lifeblood of an institution," says Dr. Johnetta Cross Brazzell, who spent five years at Spelman College as vice president of student affairs before moving on last year to the same position at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. "It says a lot about the quality of the experience for the student. It's something a university has to be responsive to."

So why do some HBCUs have such low retention rates? Are there problems unique to HBCUs and to Black students in general that make it difficult for them to return year after year?

The answer is yes, and those problems run the gamut from finances to family support.

Dr. Jorge Fuentes, a retention expert and chairman of the Search for Education Elevation and Knowledge program at Hunter College in New York, says the most common reasons that students leave school are lack of financial assistance and being academically unprepared. Fuentes says some students don't really know what they're working toward when they get to college, so they flounder, become frustrated and leave.

"HBCUs really take students under their wing in most cases," says Fuentes, who received his doctorate from historically Black Grambling State University in Louisiana. "But it's the social and academic adjustment that determines whether a student makes it or not."

There are some common characteristics among Black students and majority Black institutions that could play a factor in retention rates. HBCU administrators say many Black students are first-generation college students, meaning they are the first in their immediate families to attend college. So the family support of "been there, done that" is not present in many cases.

And with today's soaring tuition rates, many administrators say they are seeing more students than ever before holding down a job--and not just part-time work, but a full-time position on top of taking a full load of classes.

"The mission of HBCUs is to provide an opportunity for higher education," says Hampton's Smith. "Therefore, HBCUs attract and accept students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds as well as various academic levels. So designing programs to address all of these issues is difficult," he says, adding that most HBCUs do not have adequate resources to develop elaborate retention plans.