In reading the posts on this forum, it reminded of the saying "it takes a whole village to raise a child." In our schools, it takes the involvement of all departments to identify and assist at-risk students. For example, a collector in the finance department notices that they are sending a past due notice to a student. Passing along that information to the DOE or program chair would provide an opportunity for us to talk with the student and perhaps refer them to career services for a part-time job. Or an instructor who notes that a student is frequently absent because he/she lacks transportation or child care, could contact student services to see if there are resources available. One of the ways in which our campus management team tries to accomplish this is to have weekly meetings (Education with Finance, Career Services with Education, Finance with Admissions, and so on) at which we can discuss students that are having some issue that may result in withdrawal from school. Something I would like to do is organize a retention committee with representatives from all departments; I would appreciate any comments that folks may have on the impact of retention committees.