By Sydney Syverson
Vy-Hoa Le left UP after her freshman year.
"I liked UP a lot," Le said. "It was a really inviting place, but family stuff and finances got in the way of me staying there."
While the vast majority of freshman decide to stay at UP, Le's story is not uncommon. And yet, not all transfer students share Le's favorable thoughts about the university.
Molly Mantagna transferred to Lewis and Clark after her freshman year.
"UP was actually my fall back school," Mantagna said. "I knew I was going to leave right from the beginning. I just wasn't as happy as I could have been there."
According to Karen Nelson, director of Institutional Research, about 86 percent of UP's 2008 freshman class returned for the fall. Freshman retention increased .3 percent from 2007.
This means that UP's freshman retention rate is well above the national average of 66 percent, according to data from ACT, Inc., a national corporation best known for its ACT tests.
But what about the 14 percent who did not return to UP?
Hannah Weinert transferred to University of Montana in Missoula after her freshman year.
"One of the reasons I left UP was because of the lack of trust in the community of the dorms," Weinert said. "There was no sense of bonding. UP set up a system that caused discord between the RAs and the students."
Michelle Charbonneau left UP for a similar reason.
"I didn't have as much fun my freshman year as I thought I would," Charbonneau said. "I felt like I was always being babysat in the dorms because there were so many rules."
Such complaints explain why about 15 members of the UP community - including deans, professors, counselors and students - joined together last year to create the Task Force on Retention.
The Task Force, which was chaired by the Rev. Steven Rowan, C.S.C., formed last year with the charge of deciphering some of the main reasons students leave the University and to create recommendations on how UP can make those students want to stay.
According to John Goldrick, vice president of Office of Enrollment Management and Student Life, the University's long-term goal is to increase retention by 1 percent every year. Goldrick admits this is an ambitious goal.
"UP is one of the finest, finest schools," Goldrick said. "We want to do everything we can to show the students what they have here so we can know if they choose to leave it is for reasons out of our control."
Tuesday, Goldrick met with the UP Board of Regents to prioritize the list of 39 recommendations formulated by the Task Force on Retention. They are also considering the cost of each recommendation.
Some recommendations require the hiring of new positions that would help freshman directly. Another recommendation calls for creating accommodations, such as recreational facilities, that would be attractive specifically to male students.
"If the cost for the recommendations can't fit into the budget, it affects tuition," Goldrick said. "And I think students know that."
This is why Goldrick stresses that many of the recommendations, though important, will take years to complete because of the funds required.
According to Brenda Greiner, director of Shepard Freshman Resource Center and member of the Task Force on Retention, the three main reasons freshman leave UP are academic problems, financial burdens and because the fit of the university with the student is not right.
Greiner, beginning her fourth year as director, has made it her personal goal to meet with as many freshmen as possible.
"Last year I met with over half of the freshman class," Greiner said. "It's our job to connect the freshmen with the resources they need in order to succeed at the university."
In some cases, freshman who leave UP eventually change their minds and return.
Junior Colin Dorwart believes the University is working hard to please students. Dorwart attended University of Portland for his fall semester of freshman year, then transferred to Creighton University in Nebraska. After one semester at Creighton, he transferred back to UP.
"Looking back, I really wasn't unhappy at UP," Dorwart said. "I was just trying so hard to find things I didn't like so I could transfer to Creighton. But once I was there I found myself really wanting to go back to UP because I had been so involved on campus."
Sophomore Amanda Garman decided to stay at UP for a couple reasons.
"The social work program is really good," Garman said. "Also, once I had established a community on campus I didn't really feel like leaving that community."
That's just the kind of sentiment the University hopes to nurture in more students. Only time will tell what will become of the 39 recommendations the Task Force suggested for raising the freshman retention rate. Some are in the process of being implemented. Others will take years to come to fruition.
The stage has been set and the retention rates in the next few years will signify whether or not those efforts are enough to keep more freshman returning to UP.
