In an effort to retain students and increase enrollment, Ball State University has put time, effort and money into its first-year initiatives.
Kay Bales, vice president of student affairs, said after the retention rate dropped below 75 percent in 2004, Ball State set a goal of 80 percent by 2012. She said she was confident the university would reach that goal.
She said the biggest reason for the increasing retention rates is the university's programs aimed at first year students. Each year's freshman class is about 3,600 people, she said, and when programs appeal to them and make them comfortable, more stay with the university.
"These programs provide a real opportunity for students to begin making connections with their peers and the staff early on," she said.
Ball State's first-year initiative has been nationally recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's best each of the past five years, Bales said.
Perhaps the main reason for the recognition is the Freshman Connections program.
Director of Freshman Connections Melinda Messineo said the program created a living and learning community for freshman students. It puts them into several groups based on where they live. The hope is that students have class with the people they live with, she said. That makes doing homework and group projects and going to class easier.
Each group has an upper-class student adviser near them in the residence halls that helps with problems they may have with their schedules or school, she said.
Since it started in 1998, the program has developed summer training courses for professors teaching first-year students, focused on bringing more nationally recognized speakers to campus and provided student activities, Messineo said.
She couldn't say whether the program had a tangible effect on retention rates, she said, but she received positive feedback about several aspects from students. They enjoyed meeting authors of the freshman readers, the Freshman Connections play and the advisers in the residence halls among other things.
Freshman Connections is a valuable program, Messineo said, that has been successful because of its emphasis on students' first-year experience and improving the methods of professors who teach first-year students. As long as it continues its emphasis on first-year teaching, it will continue to receive positive feedback.
Bales said other programs, such as ACCELERATE, which allows students to move into the residence halls early and Early Start, which gives students three credit hours for attending two week seminars in June did a lot to reach out to students and help them succeed.
"Our first and foremost concern is the success of the students," she said.
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