Retention Programs
Personally I believe that our institution needs much more student involvement. A newsletter would be great, picnics, and school field trips as well as career based field trips and activities are also something that I believe would boost moral
Alphonso, how are responsibilities for your supportive activities assigned among staff members? Annette seems to suggest that the responsibility is concentrated with a few people and it can be overwhelming.
Annette,
That is a great point. I might add that many of our students, and students that choose the career education route, have chosen us because we work around busy work schedules. Many of the students are not traditional, in the sense that they are not attending "State U." We have a newsletter, recognition for grades, fun type activities, etc., and they all help foster more of an inclusive atmosphere, but clubs are difficult due to the outside of class time requirements that many student simply cannot handle.
Annette, how are these extra duty assignments made? Seems like a good topic for discussion institution wide.
Loren Kroh
One of the biggest obstacles often becomes the extra time these (some) activities require. Extras like newsletters,clubs, etc... require alot of behind the scenes work. I speak from experience that too often you'll have all the preparation /coordination work falling on one or two people. It can be very draining to put in all the extra work and not be recognized or offered assistance or worse complained about because the event wasn't "perfect" -- It's great when you have alot of help and exhausting when you don't.
I agree with you Becka. I have thought about this so much because there is a significant disconnect for our students at BTI. I also think that many students do not get invovled in the current organizations and clubs because of all that they juggle. I hope that our campus will grow to be more social where the students bond more with the institution and have more school pride.
When class size is too great for field trips, I have found that YouTube works marvelously. It has videos that show how things are made, where they come from and the like. You can find a plethora of demos as well. The students really seem to get into those.
James
Ms. Malanios,
Good point and those are all great ideas. I think that we would all benefit from those things. But in the current scenario, much of those things were removed or not instituted. With that being the case, I think that retention and student happiness have suffered. An institution of higher education has to be aware of the resulting shifts that occur when those programs are removed or not implemented. I can recall field trips that classes went on in the past and the resulting perspectives and paradigmatic shifts that occurred after the students took the trip. Those trips were very enlightening and invigorated the thought process and thereby enhanced retention to a point.
James
Our school is not able to do field trips because of the school size but we have related events at the school a few times a year and the students get really involved. the also like the job fairs that are held every three months
