How Can Equity-Focused Universities Combat Alarming Dropout Rates?

That old phrase many of us remember from our college orientations, “Look around, the person sitting next to you may not be here next year,” still rings sadly true in today’s higher education environment. Even after years of research and improved resource support, the latest National Center for Education Statistics data shows the year-one dropout rate for first-time degree-seeking undergraduates at four-year colleges is 23.3%. When we look at four-year institutions that are mission and equity-focused, those first-year dropout numbers escalate to 40.9% for public institutions and 33.3% for private institutions. 

It’s not that learners attending equity-focused colleges are less motivated to succeed than their more traditional counterparts; often quite the contrary. But they’re likely entering their higher education journey at a different academic and emotional place. Many come with no financial support from their families. In some cases, students are parents, balancing the costs and responsibilities of childcare on top of their schoolwork. Transportation is an issue for many students, with rising gas and parking costs and the increasing emotional stressors of public transportation and related safety concerns. Some face food insecurity, a challenge that often goes undetected, as students are embarrassed to admit they’re hungry or haven’t eaten before class.

At National Louis University (NLU), we have made the mission-driven decision to support our students, however they come to the institution. We are focused on being an inclusive and innovative community, providing educational opportunities that empower and inspire all learners. While our overarching objective is to help our students prepare and advance themselves in the pursuit of a marketable degree and a meaningful career, we know that must begin with getting them through the critical first year.

Prioritizing freshman retention, the NLU Undergraduate College has developed and continues to build upon a robust series of intentional interventions designed to better prepare our students for first-year success. These include:

Student Success Seminar

This mandatory, first-term course introduces students to the foundations of excellence as undergraduate students and helps them identify critical thinking and problem-solving skills to prepare for academic success. Students learn to understand the challenges they might face in earning a degree, how to build and utilize a support system and how to create a strategic road map for achieving personal, professional, and academic goals. Faculty and student success coaches utilize this road map throughout the freshman year to help keep students engaged and motivated to persist.

Student Success Summit

Piloted during the 2023-24 academic year as a kick-start to our Student Success Seminar, the Student Success Summit is an academically focused orientation where students meet their classmates, success coaches and first-term instructors. Held the week before classes begin, participating students get an opportunity to share information about themselves, their preferences, their fears, and gather more information on key departments that can contribute to their success at NLU. 

First-year students who attended last year’s optional Student Success Summit achieved a full point GPA higher in their first academic term than those who didn’t. Seeing the initiative as a differentiator for first-year success, we’ve made the Summit mandatory for the coming academic year and expanded it from one to two full days.  

First-Year Academic Experience

New for the 2024-25 academic year, we are launching a First-Year Academic Experience program. This program will build on what happens in the Student Success Summit and the first-term Student Success Seminar, expanding these practices across the full first year of coursework. So many wonderful things happen and are shared before school starts. Our goal is to ensure that these things continue and are shared across the curriculum and in various academic and student support spaces. The First-Year Academic Experience will continue refining the Student Success Seminar course, leveraging best practices from across the country, along with student feedback, to ensure that students are adequately prepared for success. 

Focused Student Success Coaching

Also new this academic year, we are restructuring our student success coaching team so that a select group of coaches work exclusively with first-year students. The goal is to facilitate consistent messaging and support for all our first-year students and foster coaches who become experts in freshman academic success. These coaches will partner with our admissions and financial aid teams, our student affairs team, and other staff and faculty to ensure that students and their families have the most information possible to help students begin their NLU journey successfully. 

At National Louis University, we are invested in the success of our students, from the moment we begin recruiting them until we help them launch a strong career. We believe everyone should have a fair and equal chance at success, and we hold ourselves accountable for bringing each student to a high level of academic achievement and the beginnings of a strong future. In doing these things consistently and with fidelity, we empower our students to take control of their futures and create better lives for themselves and their families.