GF revisits retention issue

Attendees at Tuesday's General Faculty Meeting sunk their teeth into two juicy issues that send college adminstrators into a frenzy: money and retaining students.

President Nancy Dye picked up where she left off in the last General Faculty meeting in September by raising the problem of low student retention. The meeting also updated the faculty on the Capital Campaign's status and its many implications in the long and short-range planning for the College.

The meeting opened with a memorial for former Professor of Botany George Jones, who died on March 3. A moment of silence was observed for Jones, a respected member of the Oberlin community for almost 75 years.

Afterward Dean of the college Clayton Koppes announced the approval of a revision for general faculty procedure. Two years ago, the general faculty voted to change the one year terms for general faculty councils to two years. An oversight resulted in there being too many candidates on the ballot for each position. This oversight has been revised so that there are twice as many candidates on the ballot for the general faculty council as there are open seats.

Dye then brought the faculty up to date on one of her main goals for the year: researching student retention. Retention has arisen as a major theme, or problem, for the President's office. Oberlin graduates a smaller percentage of its students than most of its peer institutions.

"We are lower than most of the institutions we compare ourselves to," said Dye. This low rate of retention has resulted in a poor showing in national college rankings.

"We have identified a number of areas which will be addressed by committee," said Dye. Those areas include academic advising, the credit system, grading, orientation and registration.

Dye said, "There are certain problems which I suspect are specific to our system at Oberlin." Dye explained that problems exist with the "crowded and frenzied" academic schedules that students can have with multiple one and two credit courses. Experimental College (ExCo) and second module courses were an area of concern highlighted by Dye.

Dye has commissioned Director of Institutional Research Ross Peacock to investigate the grading system employed by Oberlin. More specifically, he was asked to look into the credit/no-entry system. "Ross's research has turned up a strong correlation between using no-entry and a poor academic performance and attrition from Oberlin College," said Dye.

The President's office plans to use focus groups to investigate retention on a smaller scale. According to Dye, these groups will get a sense of the "pressure points" of a students experiences. The President's office is currently in the preliminary stages of starting the groups.

The general faculty meeting then made a shift in focus from retention to financial matters. The College is currently trying to deal with an unruly monster: a minor budget deficit. The College has a budget gap of $500,000, which is rather minute in a $112-114 million budget. Dye explained that financial aid was the reason for the current deficit. Each year,the College estimates how much money needs to be allotted for financial aid in the budget. This year the College miscalculated, hence the $500,000 gap.

The gap in the budget addresses a larger problem with financial aid. Dye said, "Oberlin is in a financial aid universe that has changed rapidly in the last three years." Oberlin's problems stem from a need-based structure for financial aid. Competition for prospective students with peer institutions has grown more difficult due to Oberlin's financial aid framework. "[Other schools] can play this game longer and harder than Oberlin can," said Dye.

Oberlin's financial aid woes led right into Associate Vice President of Campaign Direction Development John Hays' update on the Capital Campaign. Dye asked for a greater emphasis on endowments so that more capital will be available for financial aid. Hays stated that of the $165 million that the campaign hopes to raise, $75 million will be devoted to endowment, or 46 percent of all funds.

Hays informed the general faculty that $37.4 million has already been donated or promised to the campaign. A public announcement will kick off the official campaign next year.

The College's emphasis on endowment includes a planned increase in scholarships and professorships. This is a marked departure from a recent trend to fund large scale building campaigns, including the $55 million science center. Currently, not all of the $55 million needed to bankroll the science center has been raised. The remaining funds needed will have to come out of the College's yearly budget.