Dr. Joe Cuseo joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts!

Dr. Joe Cuseo is Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Marymount California University. He was a 14-time recipient of the “faculty member of the year award” on his home campus—a student-driven award based on effective teaching and academic advising, a recipient of the “Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate Award” from the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and a recipient of the “Diamond Honoree Award” from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) for contributions made to the field of student development and Student Affairs profession.

Joe has delivered hundreds of campus workshops, conference presentations and keynote addresses across North America, as well as Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East. He has authored and co-authored numerous articles and books on student learning, student success, and faculty/staff development.

Financial challenges are a primary cause of student attrition on college campuses. As Stancampiano (2022) notes, Gen Z is not opposed to earning four-year degrees; rather, they’re mindful of the high costs and want ways to advance without excessive debt. To help students overcome these barriers, institutions should engage in consistent outreach on scholarship deadlines, financial aid procedures, and funding resources.

In volume one of ASCEND to Higher Retention Rates, we discussed the value and power of having all new students complete a pre-arrival questionnaire (Tippets & Kirby, 2022). This allows us to capture lots of important insights about a student’s background, motivations, and commitment to higher education. Using the data from this survey, and combining it with other data collected from the application process, our peer mentors create “scorecards” for each student to help us prioritize our outreach and support.

Many institutions have purchased sophisticated data analytic software that ingests data to predict the likelihood of a student persisting and graduating. These are fabulous tools, but they are expensive and sometimes complicated to use. And, sometimes the predictions from these tools don’t match the outcomes or what feels right when working with the students.

As an alternate approach to predicting the likelihood of a student retaining, we have our peer mentors use the available data we have to create scorecards for each student that results in an individual score for each student. We have found the following data points to be powerful predictors of persistence and use these scores to help guide our outreach and support to students in the early weeks of their first semester:

• high school GPAs
• first-generation status
• ACT/SAT scores
• intent to transfer
• race/ethnicity
• residency status
• living on campus or off campus

In the end, the method doesn’t have to be exact or overly complex. The key is to look at student data and use that data to identify students who will need some additional support and care. Then, go to work.

Another simple way to nudge students to take care of the most important things first is to create an automated email that gets sent to the student immediately after they pay their enrollment deposit or accept their admission to the institution. Generally speaking, when a student pays their deposit or accepts their admission, they are motivated and thinking about college. As such, nudging them immediately can increase the likelihood of them completing certain tasks you need them to do. On our campus, the following email was sent to the students as soon as their enrollment deposit was paid. Perhaps more importantly, this automated email came from a real person’s account (not a ‘no-reply’ account). This allowed for immediate questions or the ability to get the student to the department that can best serve them.

Offering parent and family orientations in both Spanish and English is a practical and inclusive approach that benefits students, families, and the institution as a whole. It ensures that language barriers do not hinder access to vital information and support, fostering a more welcoming and diverse campus community.

We have found in many instances, especially among Generation Z, that we have to find ways to ‘go to them’ instead of waiting for them to come to us. To better meet students on their turf, we found many ways to ‘go to’ the students. Meeting college students on their turf, rather than waiting for them to come to your office, can offer many benefits.

Even though they are second-year students and in theory know their way around campus, sophomores and transfer students often still find themselves getting the runaround, being bounced from office to office and center to center until they find what they need. To stop this runaround, we created a one-stop shop on campus to better serve our second-year students. Similar to The Nest (a one-stop shop for first-year students) that we described in our first book (Tippets & Kirby, 2022), we created The Perch to serve as a one-stop shop for our second-year students.