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List of all Retention Council Agendas & Minutes
Agenda & Minutes for June 23, 1999
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Agenda of the Retention Council
Bartlett Room, Newhouse II 10:30 - 12:00
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Announcements |
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Welcome |
Horace Smith |
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Review and Approval of 4/14/99 Minutes |
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| II. |
Attrition of Students in Good Academic Standing |
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Presentation and Discussion of Housing and Admissions Data |
David Kohr,
Anne Shelly,
David Smith,
Barbara Yonai
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| III. |
Other Issues |
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Minutes of the Retention Council
In Attendance: Judy Hamilton, David Kohr, Judy O'Rourke, David Potter, Barbara Settel, Anne Shelly, Corinne Smith, David Smith, Horace Smith, Carole Stevens, Seth Tucker, Hannah Waggoner, Mike Wasylenko, Barry Wells, Barbara Yonai
I. Announcements
The Council considered the minutes from the 4/14/99 meeting and approved them without revision.
Horace Smith introduced David Kohr as a new member of the Council.
Horace Smith announced that Syracuse had been selected as a recipient of the Ronald E. McNair Grant to promote doctoral study for those underrepresented in graduate education.
II. Housing Data Relating to Student Retention
Barbara Yonai presented data on the housing arrangements of those students from the Fall 1997 entering cohort that were not at Syracuse in the Fall of 1998.
Most dropouts were from Flint, Day, and Brewster/Boland Hall but these correspond with where the largest percentage of the population that lives on campus resides. This is also the location of the highest concentration of freshmen that leave at a higher rate than other classes.
There was no obvious discernable pattern except that those students that lived off-campus dropped out at a higher rate than those that lived on campus.
David Kohr argued that residential hall living and the connection to campus that it provides is likely a key element in improving retention.
III. Admissions Data Relating to Student Retention
Barbara Yonai presented SAT verbal and Math data for those students from the fall 1997 entering cohort that were not present in the fall of 1998. No obvious pattern was present in the data.
David Smith reminded the Council that SATs were not considered in isolation when making admissions decisions.
Mike Wasylenko stated that SATs may not be good at predicting "if" a student will leave but may be useful for explaining "why" those that leave do so.
Judy Hamilton stated that students who come to the institution with high entry characteristics may not be those who continue high performance.
Barbara Yonai presented data showing the distribution of dropouts by high school percentile rank for the entering 1997 cohort that was not present in the fall of 1998. It was argued that this was not a good measure since 600 of the entering fall 1997 class did not report a class rank and that existing ranks are not standardized and tend to be inflated.
Barbara Yonai presented data showing the distribution of the admissions rating of dropouts from the fall 1997 entering cohort that were not present in fall of 1998. Barbara Yonai argued that admissions ratings were most valuable when compared to one another rather than non-similar data.
Focusing on the bottom 1/3 of the ratings showed interesting results with sponsored students in the HEOP and SSSP programs showing retention rates above expectations.
A focus on higher end ratings showed a gap between category 4 and 5. The question was whether there was a difference between merit and need based recipients.
A key retention issue appears to be those students that come and do well but did not receive merit aid at entry. Since no provision is made within the system to provide extra fiscal incentives to stay there is a de facto incentive to seek admission (and commensurate merit aid) elsewhere.
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