It Takes a University:

It truly takes a university to create conditions under which students successfully persist. At Carolina, there are many successful initiatives to improve retention and graduation rates among students.

Retention and graduation rates are available from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. Year-to-year retention rates and four, five, and six year graduation rates of freshman cohorts from 1967 to the present are on the the department website.

The Office of Undergraduate Education is the center of innovative learning activities for undergraduates. It coordinates a variety of services and programs, many of which contribute to retention, all of which are centered on the academic experience.

Faculty and Staff are invited to participate in the Brown Bag Lunch (BBL) Series on the Crossroads of Academics and College Student Mental Health. The program's goal is promote wellness as well as increase undergraduate student success and retention.

Summer Bridge is a rigorous, seven-week academic program encouraging student success. Summer Bridge at UNC-Chapel Hill provides top instructional and counseling staff to help its participants make the transition from high school to college. We target incoming freshman NC students from small/rural high schools that may lack AP or other college preparatory courses to take college-level English and math courses and attend workshops that acclimate them to UNC-Chapel Hill’s resources. Upon completion of Summer Bridge, students can earn up to 6.0 academic credit hours, and they face the Fall semester equipped with the successful academic strategies that Bridge models.

Diversity and Multicultural Affairs contributes to student success by offering a variety of programs and services for ethnically diverse, low income and historically underserved student communities:

• The Leadership Institute offers first, second, and third year undergraduate students opportunities for leadership development.
• The Minority Student Recruitment Committee involves over 200 currently enrolled undergraduate students in recruitment programs and activities.
• The Multicultural Council provides students leaders from multicultural student organizations opportunity to collaborate and exchange ideas in an effort to enhance arolina’s cultural landscape.
• The Duke Energy Bioscience Scholars program, a collaboration with the Office for Undergraduate Research and Office of Student Academic Counseling, offers high ability nderrepresented students a pre-matriculation research experience.
• Diversity education and training is provided to student organizations, groups and individuals who contribute to co-curricular programs exploring diversity.
• The Diversity Incentive Fund provides support to student organizations who are involved in creating new opportunities for campus interaction through innovative diversity programs and activities.
• Diversity and Multicultural Affairs staff provide informal advising, mentoring and ounseling to assist students with a wide range of personal and educational issues.

These offerings promote student engagement in campus communities, support student connections to cultural identity, and encourage a sense of belonging to the greater Carolina campus.

___________________________________________________________

For further information please contact:

Cynthia Demetriou

Retention Coordinator

Office of Undergraduate Education

cyndem@email.unc.edu

(919) 843-7773