For reasons as varied as academics, family and social life, some students find they are not fitting into the Baker University community, and many staff members have made it their job to reduce that number.
“I think there is room for retention improvement at Baker,” Louise Cummings-Simmons, vice president for enrollment management, said. “If you’re not at 100 percent retention, there’s room to improve.”
Baker’s retention rate for students entering in the fall 2005 semester and returning for the fall 2006 semester was 77.8 percent, just above the 20-year average of 75.2 percent. However, the retention rate from fall 2005 to spring 2006 was 88.7 percent, which is below the 20-year average of 91 percent.
For comparison, Cummings-Simmons said the average fall-to-fall retention rate at the school she worked at prior to Baker was approximately 85 percent.
Director of Records and Registration Ruth Miller talks with students when they choose to leave Baker in the middle of a semester to find out why.
“One question I always ask a student is whether they are leaving because they are dissatisfied with the university,” Miller said. “Probably 99 percent of the time the answer is it doesn’t have anything to do with the student being unsatisfied with Baker.”
The majority of the reasons students cite are personal, Miller said.
“The personal reasons are scattered all over the place,” she said. “Students will leave because they are not doing well academically, there may be family issues involved, etc.”
Miller said in addition to personal reasons, students will sometimes leave Baker because the major they want to pursue is not offered here.
“Occasionally, I hear from a student that we don’t have the major they are interested in,” she said. “Sometimes they just want to be in a more narrowly focused area that we don’t offer.”
Minister to the University Ira DeSpain said while part of his job is to provide guidance, the student is the one who ultimately has to make the decision of staying at Baker.
“It has to come from the student,” he said. “I can ask questions and raise issues, but for me to say if someone should go or stay is not my place.”
Cummings-Simmons emphasized the importance of involvement in student activities.
“I think one of the big things about retention is that there has to be a connection for students,” she said. “Whether it be an academic department, singing in the choir, playing in the band, playing on one of the athletic teams.”
Miller said determining exactly why a student chooses to leave Baker can be hard.
“Even when I do get to interview the student, sometimes I am not getting the full story,” she said. “For us to get 100 percent wrapped around why a student doesn’t stay is difficult.”
