A victim of things we do to retain: Jae-Kur on HSU’s retention rate

As students begin to close out their freshman year, they may not realize that they could also be extinguishing a fire of curiosity and excitement.

I would go so far as to say that while retention rates are high for freshmen, those rates dwindle down as students move forward in their studies.

According to collegefactual.com, Henderson State University has one of the lowest freshman retention rates in the country. The average 1st to 2nd year rate is 71 percent, nationally and 68 percent in Arkansas. It would be nice to know what the faculty has to say in regards to these numbers and percentages.

“In a brief way of expression, I just can’t wait to see how the school will manage to improve these numbers.

While this information is a bit dated, the numbers are poignant and very much related to this day. It remains to be seen as to whether or not our “School with A Heart” is a school with the grades and retention.

Institutions that are up for comparison are Columbia University, Yale University, or even Brown University (all of which are soaring above the 95 percent range of Liberal Arts colleges).

“These numbers are public information but for some reason, I never knew that our retention rates were that low – its almost embarrassing,” Keaton Beasley, Communications major, said.

With retention rates slowly but surely decreasing at Henderson State, I believe that it poses a broad arrangement of questions – is the curriculum too hard or do the teachers suck at doing their job?

“I wont go so far as to say that teachers do not do their jobs — I just feel like it is harder for students to keep a focus especially after coming back from Spring Break,” says Ashley Ward, Greek Life Graduate Assistant.