Student retention: Moving from numbers to action

We describe a multifaceted approach to providing information to improve student retention at an urban public university. Many students at this institution are older, working people; few live on campus and participate in traditional student experiences. A Retention Task Force, using qualitative as well as quantitative methods, identified problems that were barriers to student success or that contributed to student departure. We outline our results to date, address strategies for involving administrators, faculty, staff, and students, and discuss future research plans. We describe elements of a model for transferring information from the research realm into the policy arena.Presented at the Thirty-Second Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Atlanta, Georgia, May 11, 1992.