We have recently redeveloped our retention committee to include at least two individuals from each administrative department and two faculty representatives. I would like to include represetatives from the student body and also alumni. Is anyone else currently including students and alumni in there retention committees and if so, how has this made more program more effective?

We haven't had much luck with drop surveys. Most students do not even attempt to respond. What other methods could we use to reach the students that drop of the face of the earth and never return?

We currently have retention committees at each of our campuses; however, I would like to know if anyone has developed a committee organizationally? What I would like to see our organiztion do is create an organizational retention committee in which representatives from each campus retention committee would get together to share ideas. These ideas would be implemented as an organization. We have great ideas at the campus level; however, that's as far as they go at this point. Since our students attend more than one campus, it would be beneficial to them if we were more consistent with our operations.

I have recently been chosen to "clean up" our retention issues. I was advised to take the ball and run with it, although the situation is larger then I intially thought. I have developed and applied new "retention policies" that seem to be working with most teachers. What is the best way to gain active participation from other departments as well as teachers?

Our Student Ambassador program (student leadership) has failed miserably. Students state that they don't have the time to commit to the meetings. I would be interested to hear about other Student Ambassador programs that have been successful. What have you done to make it successful and how do you generate interest from the student body?

In order to meet the needs of the industry, it is necessary to make changes to the curriculum and programs of study to stay competitive. This tends to happen quite frequently at the college I work at. We are a large career college with 7 campuses. How can we effectively communicate changes to students? We have tried e-mails, flyers, meetings etc. I would be very interested in hearing how others communicate change to the student body.

Does anyone have any ideas how to incorporate current students in orientation activities. I think this is a good way that the new students can start to feel comfortable in their new environment and get some positive feed back from current students.

Do you think it would be helpful to students to introduce a 2nd orienation midway through the program as way to remotivate students who are failing or considering dropping and also to keep those students who are in good standing involved in the school ?

I am really interested in getting input on how to extend orientation beyond a one day event and extending it over several weeks, I think most students are overwhelmed with the amount of information presented at orientation and forget a lot of the information, has anyone tried this method?

How do you deal with student burn-out, meaning that there is too much outside and personal issues in their life that they can not cope?

How do you reach a student that is so preoccupied with their home life that school and school related activities become less important

There are times when students come to you with personal issues totally unrelated to school. I have always done my best to help the student to be solution oriented not problem focused. I would never turn a student away telling them, "that is not my problem" but I am not sure how involved I should become?

How do you deal with parents who feel the school is responsible for everything wrong in their adult childs life simply because they were not successful in their educational efforts with your school? While it isimportant for the school to look at how they could've been more helpful, it is also important for the student to take responsibility for their outcome as well. This is not an easy task. Any suggestions?

We currently hold orientation in a large classroom. The President, Executive Director, and Director of Education speak. Other staff members are introduced as they direct arriving students through the hallways toward the session. I'm very interested in the idea of dividing the new students into groups and having them visit the various departments. However, this method seems complicated to organize. Does anyone currently doing this have advice on planning and timing the concurrent sessions? What is the typical length of an orientation when done in this manner?

I think the idea of Admissions calling during their first week is a good idea, is anyone doing this?

Has anyone tried creating a passport, where they are required to get stamps or signatures of certain faculty? Then,each station then has alittle school suppy there as an incentive to meet everyone.

What is being done as a follow up to orientation during the second or third week of school to check up on students and see if their expectations are being met by everyone they have encountered?

A teacher who wants to approach 100% retention must give their student's individual attention every class period. Yes, this seems hard to do, especially as class sizes get bigger, but I believe it is neccessary. And I'm not talking about just calling on each student to answer one question, I'm refering to meaningful discussion that will help you understand if the student is actually learning or just simply repeating key phrases.