Retention at Blackburn College: Thinking About the Bigger Picture Last year I wrote about Blackburn’s success in improving Freshman retention, which was an exciting outcome to a lot of hard work over multiple years. We were challenged to see if we could maintain that kind of level two years in a row and I’m glad to say that we did. For the second year running, over 70% of students who started as first time college students in the fall came back as second year students the following fall. We are determined to continue to build on it. I hope that improved success and persistence for first year students will translate into higher graduation rates, since our primary goal is to help new students join the ranks of Blackburn alums. Retention is talked about a great deal for many reasons. When a student is admitted we make a commitment to give that student an excellent education. Strong enrollments help maintain the budget and workforce essential to college operations. High numbers of returning students tell us that those we serve value being a continuing part of our community. Students come to Blackburn for a variety of reasons and the reasons that students leave the college are even more varied. We do a lot to keep track of each student and we gather a lot of data intended to help us better understand what’s working and what’s not. One source of information that helps us is our system of program reviews. Since 2005, we’ve done 24 reviews, employing a process that involves a program doing a self-study that we share with a team that includes experienced professionals from other institutions across the region. These reviews provide important insights into what’s going well and what we need to pay attention to so that we continually improve. Pretty much every one of these reports begins with some variation on the phrase, “What you do with the resources you have is just amazing.” It’s
encouraging to know that our peers from sister institutions are impressed by our dedication and resourcefulness. It’s true that we are remarkably good at maximizing what we have available, and we pass that tenacity and problem solving skill on to our students. Sometimes, though, it gets frustrating being the “MacGyver” of colleges— solving complex problems with the materials at hand. It also illustrates why your partnership with us is so important. Our recent Homecoming reunions again reminded me of how much people care about Blackburn and the truly distinctive kind of place it is. In many cases, resources became part of the conversation, and I was struck by how often it seems that we get caught up in the idea that unless we can write six figure checks we’re not making much of a difference. Based on years of firsthand experience I know that’s just not true. Several years ago Ms. Jo Saner and Dr. Barb Mueller, both past members of our Board of Trustees, each contributed a few thousand dollars and created the Student Enrichment Fund. From then on, I started building that little fund into my operating budget. It was not a lot of money, but it was a way for me to help students participate in things they would not be able to do without a little financial boost. Over the years, I have doled out amounts typically ranging from $100 to $150 to help students in this way. This year my little fund has dwindled considerably, but I’m still trying to use it to do such things as help Math students attend a wonderful conference on Women in Mathematics, Communications students attend a Media Literacy Conference in St. Louis, and Alpha Chi (our college-wide academic honor society) members attend a national meeting of the organization. Almost every week I get additional requests of this type and I rarely see a request that does not have significant
benefit possible for the students who are asking. I’m not writing about this to persuade you to send a check for the Student Enrichment Fund. I’m trying to use this as an example of just one of the many small steps we can take to benefit students in ways they will remember all their lives. We want to do all we can to have the best professors, best staff, best facilities, and best experiences available to students. These will always be critical needs and concerns. So often, things that make very big impressions are those smaller acts that show how much we really do care about each student as an individual, as a distinctive member of our community who brings his or her own needs, hopes, and possibilities to Blackburn. It’s that linkage of the individual to the community—a link that runs both ways—that will always be at the heart of our success in helping students succeed, persist, and go on to richer and deeper lives because of their time at Blackburn College. Jeffery P. Aper Ph.D. ’78 is the Blackburn College Provost. To reach Dr. Aper, email jeff.aper@blackburn.edu
Update Magazine // Fall 2013
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