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College freshman are told over and over how important getting a degree is, but as many as half of the students who start college never graduate. And colleges are struggling to find ways of keeping students around up to the day they get their diplomas. NPR's Larry Abramson has profile of efforts at one school, Millersville University in Pennsylvania.
LARRY ABRAMSON: Professor Ralph Anttonen is 69 years old. He says even when he went to college faculty were aware that many students would never finish.
Professor RALPH ANTTONEN (Millersville University): It scared the hell out of me when he said, look to your left, look to your right, one of you won't be here next semester.
ABRAMSON: Anttonen says back then, schools felt there was little they could do about this. Now, getting students to graduate has become job one. Doc Anttonen, as he's known, teach at Millersville University and he is the chief evangelist for getting students to graduate from this public institution outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Anttonen says that in theory retention, holding on to students, is simple.
Professor RALPH ANTTONEN (Psychology, Millersville University): It's establishing a bond between that student and something in the institution - be it a person, a program, a club, an activity.
ABRAMSON: But actually creating that bond with a bunch of teenagers is anything but easy.
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ABRAMSON: One of the first activities that freshmen at Millersville experience is the Freshman seminar, a key part of orientation, which was in full swing when I visited. These students are meeting for the first time with Professor Dan O'Neill for a class on homelessness.
Professor Dan O'Neill (Psychology, Millersville University): What does it really mean to be homeless? And what - why does that happen in this country? What's the history…
ABRAMSON: The homelessness course is not graded. It's primarily meant to help integrate freshmen into their roles as college students and as citizens of the Lancaster area. O'Neill also serves as these students' adviser. He uses the class as a way to probe their strengths and weaknesses.
Prof. O'Neill: Study skills. We take time to talk about time management, social issues that come up, alcohol, sexual issues that might come up during the first semester.
ABRAMSON: Risk factor number one here is being an undeclared freshman in the first place. They are viewed as a threatened species. With no firm interest to guide them, they're more likely to be upset by the loss of a high school relationship or by bad grades in college. Millersville President, Fran McNairy says students at state schools like this one are more likely to drift away than those chosen by selective institutions.
Dr. FRAN MCNAIRY (President, Millersville University): It's easy to be able to retain and graduate the best and the brightest.
ABRAMSON: Some Ivy League schools hand degrees to over 90 percent of their students. But that's after they've picked the applicants most likely to succeed. Millersville has to admit most of the students who apply here. Still, thanks to its efforts at retention, this state school has a graduation rate that is much higher than similar schools. President McNairy says she's investing in retention efforts because it's the right thing to do, and because it saves money.
Dr. MCNAIRY: When you lose a student, you then have to replace a student. That costs even more because you probably need to recruit at least three or four students to replace one student.
ABRAMSON: So McNairy says she tries to make it everyone's mission here to hold on to students. That includes dorm staff, who might be the first people to notice that a young person is depressed. And it includes the counseling service. Director Kelsey Backels says she is already seeing the first signs of a malady that drives many new arrivals home.
Dr. KELSEY BACKELS (Director, Counseling Service, Millersville University): Every day this week we've had one of our counselors on call in the office for homesick students. And we had one yesterday, who just came Tuesday and was ready to leave on Wednesday.
ABRAMSON: During orientation, Millersville students are counseled. They're pep-talked. They're warned about every possible risk to their futures. Freshman Jessica Wall of Palmyra, Pennsylvania, says it's, well…
Ms. JESSICA WALL (Freshman, Millersville University): Boring, because it is a lot of the same thing over and over again. But it makes sense. It'll definitely will be beneficial in the long run.
ABRAMSON: Some of the retention programs are paying off. But the challenge is growing as schools accept more students with special challenges, those with learning problems, or who are attending college for the first time. And those who are coming directly to college from the military under the new GI Bill.
Larry Abramson, NPR News.
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