When youngsters go off to college, there’s an expectation they will come home with a degree. Even if a fair number of students don’t apply themselves and find themselves sitting at home instead of in a classroom, colleges nowadays are held to account for those failures.
Consequently, a lot of energy is expended by administrators in helping students with their new world of having lots of freedom, having to do homework — even if they didn’t have to in high school, having to get to class, and being homesick, all in the hope and desire that these students will persevere and eventually pick up their diplomas.
That’s not an easy job for a school as it takes a village of dedicated faculty and administrators to make it all happen and happen in numbers that are gratifying.
Such is the case with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The university reported this week that its six-year graduation rate had jumped from 25.8% to 40%, making it the highest the rate has been since the school started reporting the figure in 1998. And the new 4 out of 10 rate, as we all know, happened during the most depressing year of our lives.
The chancellor, Laurence Alexander was, of course, pleased.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We are proud to acknowledge this achievement and to recognize the leadership roles that our faculty and staff have played in making this possible,” he said. “The diligence of the entire university has allowed us to defy the odds created by a global pandemic and achieve success in our enrollment, graduation and retention goals.”
As for retention, that number also rose from about 71% to 81%.
These increases show that a lot of good things are happening at UAPB. There is a lot of competition for students, both from HBCUs as well as from colleges in general, so to pull them to campus is a small miracle itself. And if that small miracle is the result of an aggressive and coordinated recruiting effort, keeping them is the result of what goes on in the classrooms and in the many extracurricular pursuits that are available to students. Invariably, when these students leave with their diplomas, they express happiness that they stuck it out.
And, like many good results in life, there was some forethought given to how to make all this happen. In 2016, Alexander created the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success, with the intent of increasing enrollment, retention and graduation.
Braque Talley Sr., vice chancellor of the new division, said the success had its roots in the fact that the effort is campuswide.
“Achieving a 40% mark on our graduation rate is truly a team win,” he said. “Reaching this benchmark is the culmination of goal setting, strategic collaboration, data management, seamless lines of communication and being intentional about our support for students.”
Congratulations to Alexander and to Talley and to the whole campus for the success story they have now written. We look forward to seeing those benchmark numbers rise even higher. No doubt, they will.