ASCEND Podcast

Dr. Joe Cuseo joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Joe Cuseo is Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Marymount California University. He was a 14-time recipient of the “faculty member of the year award” on his home campus—a student-driven award based on effective teaching...

Financial challenges are a primary cause of student attrition on college campuses. As Stancampiano (2022) notes, Gen Z is not opposed to earning four-year degrees; rather, they’re mindful of the high costs and want ways to advance without excessive debt. To help students overcome these barriers, institutions should engage in consistent outreach on scholarship deadlines, financial aid procedures, a...

In volume one of ASCEND to Higher Retention Rates , we discussed the value and power of having all new students complete a pre-arrival questionnaire (Tippets & Kirby, 2022). This allows us to capture lots of important insights about a student’s background, motivations, and commitment to higher education. Using the data from this survey, and combining it with other data collected from the appli...

Another simple way to nudge students to take care of the most important things first is to create an automated email that gets sent to the student immediately after they pay their enrollment deposit or accept their admission to the institution. Generally speaking, when a student pays their deposit or accepts their admission, they are motivated and thinking about college. As such, nudging them imme...

Offering parent and family orientations in both Spanish and English is a practical and inclusive approach that benefits students, families, and the institution as a whole. It ensures that language barriers do not hinder access to vital information and support, fostering a more welcoming and diverse campus community.

We have found in many instances, especially among Generation Z, that we have to find ways to ‘go to them’ instead of waiting for them to come to us.  To better meet students on their turf, we found many ways to ‘go to’ the students.  Meeting college students on their turf, rather than waiting for them to come to your office, can offer many benefits.

Even though they are second-year students and in theory know their way around campus, sophomores and transfer students often still find themselves getting the runaround, being bounced from office to office and center to center until they find what they need. To stop this runaround, we created a one-stop shop on campus to better serve our second-year students. Similar to The Nest (a one-stop shop f...

Dr. Bryce Bunting from Brigham Young University joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Dr. Bryce D. Bunting is an associate clinical professor, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education, and Director of the Office of First-Year Experience at Brigham Young University in Provo,...

To help students who need professional clothes, our Career Center created a ‘Professional Closet’ to ensure they have access to professional clothing and a knowledge of how to dress for important occasions (i.e. interviews, jobs, internships, etc.). To help get this project off the ground, a request was sent out across campus and throughout the community asking for donations of lightly used profes...

Transfer students can face a variety of challenges when transitioning to a new institution or college. These challenges can impact their academic and social experiences and can involve things like credit transfer issues, navigating a new environment, academic adjustments, building a new social network, understanding a new campus culture, lacking advising and support services, limited housing optio...

As we all know, many students start school to get a bachelor’s degree. However, as life happens, that dream can get interrupted for many students. We found that by using information gathered by our withdrawal coordinator and academic advisors, we could identify students who might be considering leaving our institution, but who are close to getting an associate's degree. Nudging them to finish...

In many regards, parents are often considered the front line of defense for the retention of college students due to their significant influence and role in a student's life, especially during the critical transition to college and as issues along the journey arise. Given this, we have found that providing information and support to parents via social media can play a significant role in incr...

‘Sophomore slump’ is a term often used to describe a decrease in excitement, engagement, and overall drive that can occur after the initial excitement of the first year has passed. We know from the literature and from many years of experience that sophomore students often face a period of academic, personal, or motivational decline during their second year of college. It is important to normalize...

We created a variety of unique initiatives and programming specific to our second-year students. By specifically addressing the sophomore slump and its challenges, we try to demonstrate that we understand and care about the difficulties students may encounter during their second year. This validation can create a sense of belonging and support, reducing the likelihood of students feeling overwhelm...

Students are always looking for discounts and deals to save money. Additionally, community businesses are always looking for ways to attract more customers. Given these two realities, creating a community coupons, deals, and discount packet (or website) and giving it to all incoming and returning students can be a great way to help students save money and drive more customers to local businesses....

Most institutions explore why students have left the institution, which is indeed extremely important data to have. But how often do we explore why students return to the institution? What is it that makes them come back semester after semester? We found that this data can be just as valuable as why students leave.

Aaron Basko from the University of Lynchburg joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his deep knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Aaron Basko is currently the Vice President of Enrollment and University Outreach at the University of Lynchburg in Lynchburg, VA. He has more than 25 years of experience serving as an en...

Another nudge we have utilized, primarily to help get students registered for the next semester, is to have the university president send an email to all students who haven’t registered past a certain date to see what can be done to get the student back. An email from the university president can be a powerful tool for encouraging students to register for classes. The university president holds a...

We have found in many instances that many students often struggle to go to an event, activity, or program on their own. If they have to go on their own, they often will choose not to go at all. Struggling with attending big events or going somewhere on one's own can be attributed to a variety of factors, including social anxiety, fear of the unknown, lack of confidence, introversion, or previ...

Dr. Glenn Davis from Bowling Green State University joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his deep knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Glenn Davis is Vice President for Student Engagement and Success at Bowling Green State University. In this role, Glenn collaborates with staff and faculty from across the universi...

There are often two competing realities we face when dealing with Generation Z and their view of the workforce. First, they often complain about not having enough money; and second, there are many jobs on our campus that we can’t fill, often in the custodial or food service fields. As we further investigated this issue, we found that some students felt these jobs were beneath them or wondered why...

While peer mentoring programs have become all the rage in higher education, not many peer mentoring programs focus on second-year students. At our institution, the second-year peer mentors (Leads) serve as personal friends, guides, and coaches to each second-year student. Each returning student (or incoming transfer student) is assigned a Lead the summer before they return or start at SUU (usually...

Nii Abrahams from Butler University joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his deep knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts! Since Fall 2022, Nii Abrahams has served as the inaugural Director of the First Year Experience at Butler University in Indianapolis, where he partners across the 4 campus divisions to ensure all...

Completing a FAFSA has many financial benefits.  So, our Financial Wellness Office created regular and ongoing ‘FAFSA Nights’. During our FAFSA Nights, our Financial Wellness Office reserves a computer lab on campus for the evening to help students apply for FAFSA and answer all questions regarding what FAFSA is and why they should apply. The student turnout to these events is not huge, but every...

At our institution we began to see higher levels of withdrawals after certain messages from the institution went out to students. While it is true that Institutions of higher education typically aim to retain students rather than encourage them to withdraw, we found that there may be instances where a message or communication from the institution inadvertently triggers a student to consider withdr...