Good to Great Retention Initiatives

Faculty Directed Course Review Sessions:

• ACC 212 has a higher rate of withdrawal than other courses in the curriculum. A withdrawal is seen as a waste to the student and a cost to the department when the student re-enrolls in a subsequent semester.
• Accounting faculty members volunteer a 3 hour block on one or two Fridays - all Friday's in the semester are covered - to conduct review sessions for the previous weeks topics. 
• Accounting GAs hold tutoring office hours for a total of 40 hours a week to tutor all undergraduate courses. When not tutoring, the GAs work on faculty projects. 
• Students in ACC may attend this voluntary review session(s), though some faculty suggest participation to a student who is struggling with concepts or those who appear to be at risk of dropping the course.

Phone Call to Students Who Drop all Courses:

• There are many reasons for a student to drop all of her courses during the semester, but the university is not always aware of them. It is not known whether there is something that could have been done to prevent the early departure.
• Registrar's office runs a report each day to identify those students who did a "complete withdrawal" for the current semester. ChickUventures does the contact and follow-up on items or issues raised by the student.
• Students ending a semester prematurely are the target. The goal is to inform the university of potential problems and assist the student by identifying a path to re-enroll when ready.

Finish Faster with Fifteen!

• This is an initiative intended to educate students and their family on the benefits of earning fifteen credits a semester or average thirty credits per year for four years.
• Students who earn at least fifteen credits per semester not only pay less in tuition, they are also more likely to graduate on time compared to those who take fewer credits.
• Communication is sent to all enrolled undergraduates twice a year regardless of course load. The intention of this messaging is educational, those enrolled in 15 or more may not know the benefits.
• Communication is also sent to the family of record. Families are generally very involved with the students pathway and often are the ones assisting the student with costs. They too should be aware.
• www.gvsu.edu/registrar/15

Advisor E-Mail Outreach:

• Students who feel connected with the university are much more likely to be successful and persist to degree. A weekly or biweekly note to your advisees of record with a timely message can serve to connect the student and perhaps answer questions before they arise.
• The advisor goes to the Grand Valley home page and clicks on the link to MyBanner and selects the menu item GVSU Student Information Login. Select Advisee list. The advisor enters her G# and the list appears. From this list an email can be directed to your advisees. The advisor needs to know their Novell client login and password (i.e. bluel.admissions and password).
• The goal is to pass along information about mid-semester preparation, drop deadline, office hours, group advising sessions, study habits, co-curricular events, job opportunities, career guidance, or a host of other meaningful messages.

Department Outreach to Majors

• Similar to the advisor outreach, a periodic communication from the chair of the department to advisees would signal how important declared majors are to the academic unit.
• From the Grand Valley home page select MyBanner. On the menu click on GVSU Student Information Login. Pick the Student by Major item on the menu, from there you can pick the major and/or minor and a few other selection criteria. After the list appears an e-mail can be directed to the group.
• The goal is communication with students. Topics could be unit events, faculty profiles, student awards, department scholarships, office hours, introduce a new member of the department, or other topics that surface.