Monday, November 5, 2007
31-11
Importance of Student Input on Retention and Recruitment.
Indi Braden, Kim Madigan, and Amanda Eller. Southeast Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza Ms 6100, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701
With changing budgets for many universities and colleges, much focus is placed on recruiting and retaining students. As part of Southeast Missouri State University’s goal to maintain quality of education and student numbers in classrooms, retention committees for each college were formed. Serving on the School of Polytechnic Studies committee has provided great opportunity to evaluate the educational experiences available for students. As the committee set on the task of identifying successes and areas where improvement was needed, it became very clear that we were not the experts on student experiences at the university. A detailed survey and many open forum sessions were designed to identify the positive and negative opinions of students currently enrolled. The surveys were given in the spring semester of 2007 to as many majors in the School of Polytechnic Studies as possible. This will be followed up by open forums to allow students to share their experiences and ideas. Student input for this committee has been extremely beneficial in providing suggestions for the committee to bring to the administration.