For most students, the primary concern toward the end of the year is how to move out of their rooms successfully. For faculty and staff, the concern might be how many students are coming back in the fall and what the retention rate will be for the year that just ended.
Bluffton’s retention rates were in the low 60s when Julie DeGraw, vice president for Student Life and dean of students, first started working for Bluffton. She and the school set a goal for the university to have a 72 percent retention rate or higher within five years.
Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Julie DeGraw photo by Dani Easterday
“We hit that goal two years ago and we were all excited, and then the next two years it went back down again,” DeGraw said.
The university calculates the retention rates by looking at the original number of students who started at Bluffton their freshmen year and who returned for their sophomore year out of the original cohort.
Last year’s retention rate was 60.6 percent. The original cohort of students starting at Bluffton in the fall of 2016 was 208 and the number returning the following year in fall of 2017 was 126. The 2015-16 school year had a retention rate of 66.8 percent. For 2014-15, the retention rate was 71.6 percent. The 2013-14 school year had a 69.6 percent retention rate, while the 2012-13 school year had a 67.4 percent retention rate.
Good retention rates would be in the 80s, according to DeGraw. While these retention rates are not terrible, they are not meeting the university’s goal of 72 percent consistently.
“Everybody loses students,” DeGraw said. “[Students] realize it’s not what you want or not what you thought it would be.”
Students leave the university for a variety of reasons. The number one reason most students leave Bluffton is due to finances, DeGraw said.
“The question for us is, ‘What changed?’ because at some point they thought they had the money to come here,” DeGraw said.
One of the main reasons the students’ financial situations change is due to the families not qualifying for the Parent PLUS Loan. Without the loan, students may not be able to afford the university’s tuition and decide to transfer or drop out.
“If they go through the process with the withdrawal, they do a survey for us that asks a few questions, and then they do an exit [interview] with me or one of the other staff,” DeGraw said.
The survey is quantitative, meaning that it gives the university a broad response, while the interview is more qualitative. The exit interview looks more in-depth at the “why” response on why the student decided to leave.
However, the university is always looking to improve the retention rates, and one of the ways administrators are trying to achieve this is through better on-campus housing.
“It was very intentional to do these updates on the apartments, and even the survey on open hours was very retention related,” DeGraw said. “We’re focused on creating more housing options.”
The bathrooms in Bren-Dell and Hirschy Annex were also renovated in an effort to retain more students.
Current students can also have an impact on the retention rates of the university.
“The biggest thing is to be inclusive of people,” DeGraw said. “Some people just don’t find community here or find their people.”
One idea would be for athletes to intentionally make friends outside of their teammates to have a group that is there for them if things don’t work out.
“Having peers be aware of people struggling and taking leadership in student groups is a good way for students to help,” DeGraw said.
