West Texas A&M University received a $2,149,578 grant to help fund the efforts to raise its student retention rate.

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education awarded the Strengthening Institutions Program, Title III grant that the university will use to support students and expand university services.

“Our retention rate from fall to fall has hovered around 65% for the last several years,” said Jessica Mallard, PhD, dean of the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities and a professor of communication.

WT has attempted to raise this rate in the past by incorporating swipe attendance tracking, the early alert system, and IDS classes.

“The project’s foundational element is the individualized coaching of students,” said Angela Spaulding, PhD, vice president for research and compliance and dean of the graduate school. “Retention coaches will assist students in navigating academic and non-academic resources on campus and serve as a liaison connecting students with needed student support resources.”

According to the WTAMU website, Advising Service’s Early Alert System determines that students fall in the at-risk category when they have “assignments [that] are missing or poorly completed, chronic absences or tardies, extended illness, low exam grades, low midterm grades, personal issues interfering with performance in class, or sudden changes in behavior.”

Student retention coaches will work with these at-risk students to help improve their grades, attendance, and overall academic performance.

“Each college will have their own coach and can set goals and projects for them,” Mallard said. “There will also be a project director position to work with each coach.”

The new addition of student retention coaches is just one of the ways the grant will benefit first- and second-year students at WT, and other specific details as to the job of each retention coach are yet to be determined.

The WTAMU full strategic plan for 2015-2019 states that “according to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)…two critical features of collegiate quality [are the] amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities, and how institutional resources, courses, and other learning opportunities facilitate student participation in activities that matter to student learning.” The purpose of this grant is to increase the effort that the administration puts into the academic lives of students to achieve a higher rate of student retention.