USA Funds® Hosts Dialogue Among Minority-serving Postsecondary Institutions
By Jack Falks and Mae Dunn-St. Julien, USA Funds Services

USA Funds® has released a synopsis of a recent symposium that it sponsored to promote a dialogue among administrators of minority-serving postsecondary institutions on the critical issue of student retention. The “Implementing Collaborative Strategies” Symposium brought together 150 representatives of 55 Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges and Universities. The participants included university presidents as well as administrators with responsibilities for student services, academic affairs, admissions and retention, academic counseling, financial aid and debt management.

During the three days of the symposium, the participants heard presentations and discussed in small groups the following topics related to student retention:

• The importance of team building in effective retention initiatives. Symposium participants learned how to build a campus-wide team supporting student retention and how to incorporate retention in the institution's strategic plan. They also learned about factors that motivate institutions to emphasize retention and some of the initiatives that make up a student-retention agenda. The participants also discussed the key issues of gaining presidential and faculty support for retention programs.
  
  
• A comparison of selected institutional recruitment and retention budgets. Participants were introduced to a cost-benefit model that can help an institution determine whether sufficient resources are being allocated to student retention, gauge the effectiveness of retention practices, and help the institution establish benchmarks for success. The college administrators also discussed the challenges of developing a valid cost-benefit model due to the difficulty in defining retention costs and benefits.
  
  
• How technology can improve retention efforts. Retention experts described the types and sources of data that are necessary to inform effective student-retention programs. Participants discussed the types of data they collect to guide their retention initiatives, tools and techniques to make that data more useful, and steps that they can take on campus to use technology to improve their student-retention efforts.

USA Funds® sponsored this symposium to help minority-serving institutions share information and explore practical solutions to the common issue of how to ensure student success. Although student retention is a challenge for all postsecondary institutions, it is a special challenge for minority-serving institutions, which serve large populations of first-generation college students, many of whom come from low-income households.

The symposium was the third-annual event convened by USA Funds to promote a dialogue among administrators of minority-serving institutions on critical issues of importance to them.

For more information, you may contact Jack Falks and Mae Dunn-St. Julien, USA Funds® Services, (866) 497-8723, Option 5. A PDF of a synopsis of the symposium is available at www.usafunds.org/forms/sym-016_synopsis.pdf on the USA Funds® Web site.