Vol. 38, No. 18

1-18-2006
By: Joni Bentz Seal

Lumina funds model for retention of nontraditional students

Maria Lee is a senior in sociology, attending Ohio State's Columbus campus. Lee also is 49, works full time and has seven kids and a grandson. Though she doesn't fit the profile of a traditional college student, she is finding that she "fits" at Ohio State, thanks to a pilot study funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education.

The goal of Ohio State's Retention for Success project is to develop a model that retains and graduates nontraditional students by creating an effective institutional services system tailored to their specific needs. The progress made during the 18-month pilot, which concluded in December, holds promise for an additional three years of Lumina funding, according to Tally Hart, director of financial aid and an executive sponsor of the project.

"We learned that we needed more flexibility, not necessarily in the curriculum, but in the administrative infrastructure to successfully integrate nontraditional students with the regular student population," Hart said.

In fall 2004, 107 female nontraditional students received Lumina-funded scholarships through the university's Critical Difference for Women program, partially alleviating the financial burden of college and allowing the participants to give feedback about obstacles to their access to and success in higher education. Among the discoveries was that a single point of contact for resources and referrals seemed to have a great impact on retention and that progress toward degree - as opposed to time to degree - was an important metric in gauging success for nontraditional students.

Because of work and family commitments, Lee typically enrolls only part-time per quarter.

"Retention can be challenging because nontraditional students like me often progress through the curriculum at a much slower pace, don't have the opportunity to network with other students - especially other nontraditional students - and can feel isolated," she said. "We often need more one-on-one support and for the university to be proactive in reaching out to us. Project Coordinator Sara Childers has been helpful in assisting me with my administrative challenges, such as when my work schedule doesn't mesh with my registration window, referring me to the internal resources I need and even giving me an occasional pep talk."

Data from the cohort also resulted in the generation of a demographic profile of the more than 4,000 nontraditional and re-entry students at Ohio State, giving the university - for the first time - the ability to track enrollment trends and include that population in its diverse student profile.

"The Lumina Foundation grant has allowed us to look at this group collectively, rather than on an individual basis," said Katherine Meyer, associate provost for enrollment services and undergraduate education and also an executive sponsor of the project. "We worked out a simple system of advising with Sara serving as the initial point of contact. She shepherds students to the appropriate resources, such as the university registrar, student financial aid, and counseling and consultation services - examples of just a few areas that have partnered with us to gather feedback and initiate changes to better serve the needs of this particular student population.

For example, since most nontraditional students live off campus and have work and family commitments, attending extracurricular programming is difficult, if not impossible. "We realized we needed different delivery mechanisms for programming, such as Web-based options," Meyer said. "While they are usually served well by the same program content as traditional students, nontraditional students sometimes require different or additional information, for example more complex budgeting guidance to cover daycare."

Although this project addressed the needs of one group of students, Meyer said the goal is to apply the model not only to other institutions but also to other campus subpopulations, many of which already have resources and programming dedicated to them.

"We were able to connect with other campus groups that target populations with unique needs, such as the African American Male Resource Center," she said. "We hope the next grant will allow us to extend our programming and share information and resources to benefit all students."

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