We rely too heavily on the willingness of individual faculty and staff members to work with students. Individual people, not offices, must have responsibility for individual student recruitment and retention. We need to focus our admissions and retention processes on the relationships between individuals. We must be much more systematic in assigning prospective students to an individual admissions counselor and to a specific advisor. These individuals then become responsible for helping that student.
Cross training is critical.
Individuals who have responsibility for admissions or retention need to have a sense of the broad range of issues that a student faces including financial aid, academic advising, adjustment issues, registration, etc. All divisions of the University must work together for admissions and retention. There needs to be a coordinated, philosophically based system for admissions and retention. Academic support services are severely understaffed. Regardless of other issues, we have not had adequate staffing in the CAP Center and related services to allow them to be effective.