Purdue News
Purdue NewsFebruary 6, 1998
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue University has taken a major step in its new $5 million initiative to increase graduation rates with the addition of a retention specialist.
Drew Koch will assist Registrar Marlesa Roney in developing and implementing programs designed to increase the number of students earning undergraduate degrees at four of Purdue's campuses and the School of Technology's 10 statewide sites. Roney is senior project officer for the five-year, $5 million Lilly Endowment Retention Initiatives grant awarded to Purdue last fall.
The university expects the new programs will result in a 5 percent increase in graduation rates at each campus by the end of the five-year period. By the year 2010, these programs have the potential to yield an additional 4,600 new baccalaureate graduates from Purdue.
Koch will provide management support for the development and implementation programs at the Purdue Calumet, Purdue North Central, Indiana University Purdue University-Fort Wayne and West Lafayette campuses and for technology's statewide programs.
"I am pleased to now have the core leadership of the Lilly retention program in place as we move into the implementation phase of the grant," said Robert L. Ringel, executive vice president for academic affairs. "The regional campuses will feel the benefits of having a person with Drew's background exclusively devoted to helping their programs succeed. The West Lafayette campus looks forward to Drew's presence as its programs are implemented as well."
The systemwide goals include helping new students adapt to the college environment in their earliest weeks at Purdue and providing positive academic experiences for students, especially during their first year.
"Each year we bring in a new class of first-year students," Roney said. "Every one of them has made the decision that higher education is a valuable asset. It's important that we are investing in those students as much as they are investing in us. If we start with 100 freshmen and 75 of them graduate, that's good. The new challenge is to find ways to meet the needs of the other 25."
Roney said some of the programs to be implemented are expanded orientation, first-year seminars, proactive academic advising and supplemental instruction efforts. She said Koch also will develop and maintain a Web site that summarizes all grant activities, present progress reports to the university community, initiate and maintain a new informational series entitled Student Retention at Purdue, and serve as a resource for all retention-related programs.
Since 1995, Koch has been the associate dean and director of the Offices of First-Year Advisement and University Tutorial Services at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. He coordinated the creation of many services for first-year students and implemented a variety of retention-related programs.
Purdue's grant is part of $24 million presented to five public and nine private colleges and universities around the state as part of Lilly Endowment's continuing effort to improve Indiana's 47th ranking in the percentage of college-educated persons in the work force.
CONTACTS: Ringel, (765) 494-9709; Roney, (765) 494-6133
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
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