Low retention rate alarms NMC

The Northern Marianas College is devising plans to investigate the steady decline in the college’s student retention rate, which is approximately at 27 percent against the 40 to 45 percent average retention rate based on national norms.

NMC’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness, the Counseling Center, and the Office of Admissions, Records and Financial Aid has forged an alliance to probe the reasons behind the dismal student retention figures in efforts to stem tide.

According to Ms. Julie Ulloa-Heath, Office of Institutional Effectiveness director, the key departments are set to launch the NMC Retention Program where they will administer satisfaction surveys aimed at stimulating clearer answers as to why a significant percentage of NMC freshmen do not return to the college for their sophomore year.

“As far as student retention is concerned, our office’s job is to find out what’s causing the students not to return to school for their second year,” Ms. Ulloa-Heath said in an interview.

“Maybe they are dissatisfied with some aspects of college life and we want to know whether it has something to do with class schedules, courses offered, and other factors,” she added.

In the past, the college has reportedly initiated efforts to compile retention rate figures but have unfortunately been unable to come out with plans of action to correct the situation.

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness, a newly-developed arm under NMC, has been created to focus on providing solutions that would improve the college’s services to students, teachers, and the community at large.

“They’ve been compiling figures but it usually just stayed in some parts of the college. This time, we’re centralizing it and analyzing it so that we can increase the retention rate of students and use the data in important decision-making,” said Ms. Ulloa-Heath.

The college may begin distributing Student Satisfaction Surveys next year targeting a one-month time frame from February to March to complete the study.

NMC’s Counseling Center will also be playing a lead role in the undertaking, as counselors will be the first to list the students with plans to exit the college for whatever reason they may have.

According to Ms. Ulloa-Heath, tracking the NMC’s student retention rate is one laborious task for the college since the counting has to be done manually.

But with the installation of the new software, the ABT Power Campus, anticipated to occur in the Spring of 2001, the tabulation of significant statistical figures will cease to be tedious, she added.