At my university, I teach in a program designed to help new students who are least likely to persist in their first year and who tend to have trouble graduating on time or at all. We do all sorts of activities — teach them email etiquette, explain what a provost is, help them identify academic challenges they’ve faced and may confront again in college.
It’s called the Ascent program, and it’s been wildly successful. We retain Ascent students at a much higher rate than their counterparts in the same academic and demographic categories. The program is growing but small, so retention remains a challenge for us — as it is across higher education, especially after an undergraduate’s first semester. For many students who choose to leave, their stated reason is my least favorite one to hear: They feel disconnected.
That’s frustrating because it’s a problem we can do something about, and I don’t mean just the student-success specialists. All of us — as faculty members, administrators, and staff members — shape campus culture, intentionally and inadvertently. And we can mold it in ways that will help students of all stripes feel more connected to us, to one another, and to our campuses. Here are some practices I use to that end: