Former Leader of Retention Services for Noel-Levitz Opens Independent Firm to Help Campuses Increase Retention and Graduation Rates

After serving as vice president for retention services for Noel-Levitz, the leading recruitment and retention consulting firm in North America, Teresa Farnum has announced the opening of Teresa Farnum & Associates. TFA offers a wide variety of services for campuses wishing to increase retention and graduation rates. Because of low overhead, TFA can provide workshops, assessments, change-management consulting, and specialized consultations at a fraction of the cost of other firms.

Denver, CO October 1, 2004 - With the financial constraints that colleges and universities are facing today, more and more institutions are coming to realize that initiatives that focus primarily on increasing the numbers of incoming students cannot address the problems they are facing and that there is an urgent need to retain more of their enrolled students.) Using external experts who are familiar with best practices and who are skilled in helping implement them on campus is one of the most effective ways to ensure that a retention initiative is successful. Unfortunately, this can be very expensiveat a time when institutions are suffering from decreased federal and state support, increased pressure not to raise tuition, and changing demographics that require costly programs to ensure that students succeed. I wanted to provide the same level of expertise and experience to campuses that I did in my five years with Noel-Levitz at a financial level that is affordable, said Teresa Farnum.

Increasing retention and graduation rates through improved student learning, success, and satisfaction not only promotes higher revenues and college rankings, but ensures that the institution is supporting the students it typically works so hard to recruit. This is important to parents and students in a world that is understandably consumer-oriented and conscious of the value of tuition dollars.

Nationally, average first-to-second year retention rates have discouragingly remained the same for the past 15 years, despite the fact that there is extensive research on what characteristics of the college experience make a difference in the complex decision a student makes to drop out or transfer. But for every institution that implements a program that has a significant, positive impact on the student experience, another makes decisions that have the opposite effect.

Additionally, it is not always easy to plan and put into action a program that reflects current research. Individual campuses have unique circumstances that affect their ability to apply best practices, which are evident on successful campuses. These factors may include special circumstances, profile of their student body, organizational structure, student information systems, and faculty and staff receptivity to change, to name a few.

Probably the two most critical factors in a successful retention initiative are: (1) a retention plan with measurable goals; strategies to achieve the goals; and action plans, with timelines, responsibility assignments, and assessment procedures to ensure success; and (2) the engagement of the entire community in the initiative to improve the quality of student learning, success, and satisfaction. Unfortunately, the fact that retention is everybodys business frequently means that retention has nearly a invisible presence in the organizational chart, there is no budget, and no one is in a highlevel leadership position to ensure that these two factors are present. Collaboration among many offices is necessaryand difficult, especially when offices must contribute separately from their scarce dollars.

I have been on campuses that were literally hemorrhaging students and others that were above national averages in retention and graduation rates. The differences in the feel of the cultures are almost palpable. The challenges in improving retention rates are far greater than simply putting a few new programs in place. This is why external assistance from someone experienced in change management and customization of retention research to the circumstances of the campus can have a powerful impacteven on campuses that have respectable rates but want to do better, said Teresa Farnum, who has personally worked with more than 100 colleges and universities.
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