Contact: Maridith Geuder
Mississippi State freshmen who miss more than two classes in the first six weeks of school can expect a friendly phone call, e-mail or personal visit to remind them how important attendance is to academic success.
Called "Pathfinder," the five-year-old program is making "significant progress" in keeping students enrolled once they get to campus, said founder David L. McMillen of the university's Social Science Research Center.
Echoing McMillen is Noel-Levitz, a higher education consulting firm associated with Sallie Mae, the federally guaranteed national student loan fund. Last month, Iowa-based Noel-Levitz named MSU as one of eight selections for its 15th annual Retention Excellence Award.
Mississippi State shares the 2003 honor with Texas A&M and Michigan State universities, University of California-San Diego, and College of New Jersey, among others.
"This truly is a campus-wide program in which people have come together to offer their time, skills and resources to ensure student success," McMillen said. Though no longer a faculty member, McMillen continues to direct the program with the assistance of SSRC research associates Ty Abernathy and John F. Edwards.
The retired psychology professor led in establishing Pathfinder on a limited basis in 1997. Since then, the percentage of students retained each year by MSU has continued to rise, as has participation by MSU faculty and staff.
"When we began the program, about 76 percent of students in the freshman class returned for a second year; that number now has risen to 81 percent," he said. "Statistically, the increase is extremely significant."
McMillen said retention numbers have continued to rise even as admission standards remain unchanged and entrance scores and other student indicators are relatively stable.
"We believe class attendance has a direct influence on academic performance as well as on student retention," he said, citing 2002 figures, the most recent available.
During that year, the mean grade-point average for freshmen without absence problems was 2.82 (out of 4.0), compared with a mean of 2.0 for those reported with absence problems.
"When we started the program, about 75 percent of freshmen were attending class with no absence problems," McMillen said. "We've now increased that number to 90 percent."
In daily encounters with students, Abernathy said he seeks to communicate that "we're here to be helpers, to provide information and to encourage students to let us know if they're having problems."
Even in a "how ya' getting along" conversation, he'll talk about class attendance. "Students usually are responsive because we're offering them insights about succeeding," Abernathy said.
MSU Pathfinder is built around a multi-level contact system, including:
--MSU President Charles Lee, who writes the parents of all incoming freshmen to reinforce the message.
--Division of Student Affairs officials, who work closely with Pathfinder to train orientation leaders who will be interacting with incoming students and their parents, as well as student assistants who will visit freshmen having class-attendance problems.
--Faculty members whose class attendance reports alert Pathfinder to students with potential or real problems.
--Campus offices of Institutional Research, Information Technology Services, Athletic Advising, and the SSRC, which provide data, equipment and office space.
Other MSU enhancement programs are complementing Pathfinder's efforts. A three-year-old Student Affairs mentoring project pairs incoming freshmen with faculty and staff volunteers available to answer questions or provide support. The university's academic advising center also provides services that continually stress positive academic experiences.
McMillen defines the Pathfinder concept as a low-budget approach with high-impact results. "We believe we're working much more efficiently with the available resources," he said.
"We're very proud of the ways MSU students and faculty have changed the norm for class attendance," McMillen emphasized. "This campus is working to help students be more self-motivated and responsible in achieving academic goals."