Purpose and Mission

​​The Office of Student Retention provides strategic insight to guide the university’s retention process and collaborates with university units to track the outcomes and evaluate the success of retention efforts across all three campuses. Our goal is to support students’ persistence and success from the time they enroll to the time they graduate.​

Retention and persistence are often used interchangeably. UW-Stevens Point, using guidance from the National Student Clearinghouse, distinguishes between these terms. Retention focuses on the actions and strategies employed by our institution to support current students in succeeding at UWSP, while persistence emphasizes the efforts and mindset of students to persevere in their studies at any institution despite expected and unexpected challenges. 

UW-Stevens Point documents both retention and persistence data for inclusion in the national Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The retention rate we report is the percentage of first-time full-time undergraduates who return to our institution for their second fall semester. The persistence rate we report focuses more broadly on students who continue beyond their second year at any institution, including those who may have stopped out of UWSP and returned at a later date.​

Primary Areas of Work

​Retention Framework and Student Success Ecosystem

​​Faculty and staff from each division of the university created a university-wide retention framework during the 2021-2022 academic year to complement the university’s intentional ecosystem for student success​. The retention framework identifies high-level learning and behavioral outcomes for students in each year of their academic journey and describes the actions that faculty and staff members can take to support students in achieving those outcomes. The framework provides a common point of reference for departments in reviewing and refining their retention efforts. The Office of Student Retention plays a key role in helping department staff interpret the framework, apply the framework in ways that reflect the unique characteristics of their disciplines, and monitor the ongoing effectiveness of their retention efforts.​

Assessment of the Student Experience

The Office of Student Retention also helps to assess students’ experience, seeking to refine our understanding of the factors that impact students’ academic and personal success. Our office works with quantitative data maintained by the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness (OIRE)​ and with qualitative data collected through surveys or focus groups. The Office of Student Retention regularly administers the following surveys: the Entering Student Survey, which captures first-year students’ self-assessed strengths and concerns before they arrive on campus, the New Student Survey, which captures first-year students’  
self-assessed strengths and concerns at the end of their first semester, and the Withdrawal (Enrollment) Survey, which captures students’ reasons for stopping out. If you would like to collaborate with the Office of Student Retention to conduct a survey or focus group about the experiences of the students you teach, supervise, or otherwise support, please connect with our office using the contact information to the right.

Outreach Campaigns

In collaboration with the Office of Academic Success, the Office of Student Retention develops intentionally timed outreach campaigns to current and previously enrolled students. These outreach campaigns, conducted through the University’s EAB Navigate system, are designed to support students in coping with potential roadblocks to student success. Examples include advising and enrollment campaigns, which prompt students to consult with their advisor and add courses to their schedule in a timely manner.​

Consultation and Support

The Office of Student Retention is available to support colleges, schools, departments, or individuals in developing or revising retention efforts. Use the contact information to the right to request support in any of the following areas:

• Obtaining and interpreting data
  

• Planning and conducting outreach
  

• Aligning retention efforts with institutional goals
  

• Tracking the effectiveness of outreach and other retention efforts
  

• Other needs, as requested
  

Contact the Office of Student Retention if you have questions or ideas about working together to support student retention and success! ​

Retention Advisory Committee

The Office of Student Retention guides the work of the Retention Advisory Committee. This committee, comprised of faculty, staff, and students from all three campuses, is charged with learning more about the student experience, identifying barriers to student success, and recommending policies and procedures to remove identified barriers.  ​