Retention and Woolies

This was a busy day for me. I attended a 3-hour Retention Working Group meeting this morning with faculty, staff, and administrators from across campus, and I was amazed to see a bunch of statistics comparing entering freshmen and transfers from 1995 up to the present. However, the discussion after the presentation really impressed me. People came to the conclusion that we have all of this data about which students are more likely to have struggles at UMBC and have a greater chance of not graduating, but helping to prevent that is a challenge in itself. How do you advise a student to take a lesser course load without sending the message that you don't believe they can make it? A lot of students don't realize that there are some good people trying to improve the undergraduate experience and truly care about student success.

This afternoon, I met with Lee Calizo, Cindy Paige, and Jackie Wilson about possibly moving the SGA Retreat earlier so that SGA members can go through Woolie training for Welcome Week. It seems like on the housing end, this would definitely be feasible. Woolies bring so much energy for the start of the school year, and I'm hoping that by adding numbers, Welcome Week can be even better for new students. If you are interested in being a Woolie (or an Orientation Peer Advisor, shameless plug), follow the link below.


http://www.umbc.edu/orientation/leaders.html