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BY MOLLY (REED) GOALEY ’05
Ronda Miller knows how to connect students to Olivet College. When she joined the Olivet staff as an admissions representative in 2007, she helped bring in some of the highest enrollment numbers in school history. On top of her duties as a recruiter, Miller kept in touch with the students she courted, hosting forums about their experiences at Olivet and even teaching a Self and Community class. So when the college decided to take a new direction in retention initiatives this year, Miller became a likely candidate to oversee the job. “As an admissions representative I was always coming into contact with the individuals I recruited,” she said. “Usually in admissions you court someone, bring them here and although you see them from time to time, you normally hand them off. I just never let go.” Miller’s ability to connect and keep in contact with students proved to be a valuable asset to the college. In January, she was named director of student retention at Olivet. She now works to create and implement strategies for retaining students, as well as providing leadership to staff and faculty in that arena. Supporting Miller for the Spring 2009 semester are four employees who serve as the college’s retention team. Mike Smith, assistant football coach, serves as freshman retention officer; Dustin Byrd and Samantha Myers, assistant professors of interdisciplinary studies, serve as sophomore retention officers; and Larry Smith, director of the African-American Culture Center, serves as AfricanAmerican student retention officer. “Our number one goal is to improve our retention and graduation rates by developing programs and initiatives that will support the students and our college,” Miller said. Noting that students are more likely to graduate if they are tied to the campus through an academic program,
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Ronda Miller (right) counsels Joshua Jackson, a freshman transfer student.
sport, organization or other social network, Miller designed several proposals to get them connected to Olivet from the start. She is currently working on a peer mentoring pilot program, in which incoming freshmen are matched with juniors and seniors from their major before they arrive on campus. “The upperclassmen provide a mentor relationship and establish communication with freshmen over the summer, so when they arrive in the fall the students are already connected to the school and their academic department,” Miller said. Another program she developed is a confidential alert system for faculty and staff who are concerned about students facing difficulties at Olivet. Called the Comet Alert Program for Employees, the
system allows anyone to refer a student to the retention team by filling out an online form. “You don’t have to be a professor to make a referral,” Miller said. “It’s for anybody who has contact with students, whether they are in housing, food service or other offices.” When the retention team is alerted of a student who seems to be pulling away from the college or experiencing an issue, they set up a meeting with the individual to examine the problem. “Sometimes they are lacking time management skills or they are worried about their financial aid; those are things we can explore and try to fix,” Miller said. A retention officer then meets with the student and uses a S.M.A.R.T. Plan (which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-