September 3, 1999

Student success and retention is priority

The report of the Task Force on Student Success and Retention, prepared after two semesters of planning by the 120-member group that includes faculty, students, alumni, staff, and administrators, with input from the entire university community, was approved by the University Planning Team and the President's Cabinet in May.

"Faculty, staff, and administrators across the campus are realizing that the challenges facing Loyola, in the wake of an increasingly competitive post-secondary environment and a consumer-driven market, necessitate more than simple adjustments, but a transformation of the campus culture," according to the executive summary of the report. "By accepting student success as our number one priority and student retention as our number one challenge, we have committed ourselves to changing the way we have done things traditionally."

The task force is unique because it represents the first self-initiated, comprehensive, and coordinated approach and university-wide effort committed to institutional effectiveness and the Continuous Improvement Process Model. The task force serves not only to recommend a cultural transformation of the campus, but is itself part of the process to bring about change. The 214-page comprehensive report outlines ways to create an optimal learning community and to inform and educate the university community regarding the success of our students.

The task force examined information gathered from numerous sources to develop goals and action plans with clearly defined outcome measures for improving the quality of student life and learning and for transforming the campus into a student-centered academic community. The financial impact of achieving these retention goals is significant, potentially exceeding one million dollars in additional revenue. The task force retention goals are:

1. To achieve an annual freshman-to-sophomore persistence rate of 83% for students entering Loyola in the fall of 1999.
2. To gradually increase the annual freshman-to-sophomore persistence rate for classes entering:

Fall 2000 to 85%
Fall 2001 to 87%
Fall 2002 to 89%
Fall 2003 to 90%

3. To achieve a cohort four-year graduation rate of 60% for students entering Loyola in Fall of 1999.
4. To achieve a cohort five-year graduation rate of 70% for students entering Loyola in fall of 1999.
5. To increase the mean satisfaction score of each scale in the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) by a minimum of 0.5 points by spring 2000.

"This is the most comprehensive campus report on the topic of student retention that I've ever seen(it) is worthy of sharing with other institutions," said task force consultant Dr. John Gardner of the renowned National Resource Center for the First-year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina.

Look for the executive summary of the task force report online on Loyola's internal home page. A complete copy of the report is on reserve in the library and is also available through task force members.