Chancellor aims to increase student retention

At the beginning of the semester, James Llorens, Chancellor of Southern University and A&M College addressed the faculty and administrators of SUBR with the goals for the 2014-2015 school year.
One of the goals that Llorens has for this year is to increase retention rates. To reach this goal, Llorens has teamed up with faculty members to help accomplish this goal.
 “We want to maintain and increase enrollment for retention purposes,” Llorens said.
Llorens said that maintaining enrollment is not just a certain department to do, but for administrators and faculty to join forces and work together to accomplish the goal.
“I don’t believe that retention is one department’s responsibility, but it is the university’s responsibility as a whole,” he said.
Llorens said that it is for every faculty member to know their role in this goal.
“Its critical for faculty to understand their role by being able to provide information to Academic Affairs,” Llorens said.
He said that is important to address academic issues before the end of the semester, but it’s important to address it ahead of time.
Llorens said that it also includes customer service within the offices that service students.
“If you go beyond that, we look at the customer service side. We look at the different offices that service students, such as financial aid and the registrar’s office,” Llorens said.
VerJanis A. Peoples, Executive Chancellor for Academic Affairs, said that the importance of retention begins with very first moment that students arrive on-campus.
“It incorporates every aspect of a student’s life, from the time they stepped foot on campus through who they met to classes and financial aid,” Peoples said.
According to Peoples, the estimated retention rate is 73 percent for the first-to second-year students and first- third-year is at an estimated 53-54 percent.
“We are interested in increasing our student retentions. Although we are fair, but we want to do better to increase retention rates at each level,” Peoples said.
Peoples said that training faculty in technology is one way the administration aims to improve retention.
 “We want to give our students what they used to doing, for example train faculty to use new and innovative techniques, such as how to air drop YouTube videos as part of a learning tool,” Peoples said.
There are several programs including the First-Year Experience and The First 36.
The First 36 refers to the first 36 hours for incoming freshmen to assist them in their classes.
Students discussed ways on how the administration can increase student retention.
Alliyah Moore, freshman biology major from Pensacola, Fla. said that teachers should utilize Blackboard between Mid-Terms and Finals.
“I think teachers should access Blackboard more to inform students of their grades. For example, give quarter grades because the only time I know about my grades are at Mid-terms and after Finals,” Moore said.
Ka’Shay Winston, freshman Psychology major from Baton Rouge said that administration should encourage freshmen more.
“Give us rallies and sit us down and talk to us about the importance of college. Just hold our hand and show us the right way to go,” Winston said.
Charissa Carroll a senior chemistry major from Alexandra said to invest in the smaller programs as much as the larger ones.
“The smaller majors have the most retention. They should just spend a little more time with them by doing different things to show that they are important as well,” Carroll said.