Given the gloom and doom demographic projections for traditional college going-age students, and as traditional four-year institutions are thus in constant search for revenue via enrollment, there are meaningful conversations around alternative populations to attract. One population, while smaller, but meaningful in terms of cohort population because of the way US News calculates rankings based on cohort retention, and thus an important group, involves engaging and reengaging student stop out students to transition back to your institution. My experience has been that this population of students often receives little attention.
Once students leave an institution, there are opportunities to keep them engaged. First, regularly communicating with them, encouraging them to return or offering assistance resources shows the institution cares. Affirming that any financial aid via merit scholarships or need-based assistance will remain unchanged, assuming no change in family financial circumstances or academic progress, also communicates an encouraging message. I am familiar with one institution that is working to offer part-time virtual classes so stop out students can maintain enrollment on a part-time basis.
Once a stop out student returns, my experience is that this population has been managed with a hands-off or red tape approach. For stop out students looking to reenroll, they end up completing a number of different reenrollment forms and meeting with between three and five different disparate offices simply to complete the reenrollment process. The process often feels like it is managed like the DMV – fill this form out in triplicate and maybe you hear in four to six weeks. Not the greatest student service experience.
Once completed, and the reenrollment process bureaucracy is finalized, I have found there is little formal onboarding or reentry counseling work done at institutions to reacclimate or reengage students such that they develop a feeling of belonging. Knowing there is research about how student persistence is influenced by the notion that “someone cares about me”, having a process or program in place to reacclimate or reengage reenrolling students is meaningful.
So, what do these programs look like?
First, developing a separate orientation for reenrolling students works to address specific topics for this population. Within the program, areas of emphasis can include time management, study skills, hands on advising about course selection, conversations about the financial aid and billing process, and perhaps of greatest importance, career development conversations to show the linkage to return on investment for the education.
Next, offering a specific cohorted seminar course for reenrolling students, as they may have had similar stop out experiences, offers an additional transitional reengaging opportunity. Course content involving developing an academic plan, career development and internship opportunities, sessions on campus involvement, as well as study abroad and research all serve to provide engagement opportunities. Tied to this, ensuring students have intrusive or regular hands-on advising sessions ensures reenrolling students are not left to their own devises working, as one college administrator was once quoted, “to figure things out” on their own. Reduced hour campus employment opportunities are an additional way to engage stop-out students providing them opportunities to learn a skill and earn money while not over taxing time out of class or study.
Does this involve a degree of hand holding? For sure. But as one higher education scholar noted, this involves meeting the student where they are. It is temporary to provide them with the tools needed to succeed. The scholar added, this is nothing more than pedagogical problem solving versus questioning what is wrong with students today. In other words, in cases of reenrollment, the training wheels may need to stay on a little longer to ensure students are on the right path before letting them soar. As tuition paying students, I would argue we owe it to them to put our best foot forward to help position them to succeed thus achieving their hopes and dreams of a college degree.
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