In addition, peer advisers coordinate groups of students working on related projects for informal presentations and discussions. Throughout the year, UROP staff arrange workshops and other activities for participants. To date, project staff have gathered retention and academic performance data on 859 students who participated in UROP, and on 837 contr ol students who did not. Students within each of the sub-groups are then matched and randomly assigned to UROP or the control group for t hat year. The retention and academic performance data for students in UROP and the control group include individual registration status, enrollment information, cumulative GPA, demographic information and entrance test scores.
Retention is defined as persistence through graduation.
The only academic criterion for participation in UROP is a 2.0 GPA from high school or from the first year in college. To gauge the social and psychological changes effected by UROP, participating students and controls are administered surveys at the beginning and end of each academic year. UROP faculty are evaluated for attitude changes through a questionnaire designed to measure attitudes about race, opinions about race relations on campus, causes of student attrition, and their expectations and beliefs about UROP students. By all indications to date, UROP has been a success, especially for students from underrepresented minorities. There are insufficient numbers of Hispanic and Native American students in the database to measure UROP's effects on these groups specifically.