Retention Efforts at Converse University

Institutions of higher education are focused on student retention and achievement. Converse University's Will Case shares what Converse has implemented to keep students:

engaged, enrolled and successful.

The Division of Student Development and Success at Converse University utilizes numerous mechanisms to support student retention. Connections to campus begin with the First-Year Experience that includes a first-year (FYS) and student success seminar (SSS). Students select an FYS/SSS pairing that aligns with their interests, and the experience aids in establishing community and connectedness to campus. FYS instructors also serve as the academic advisors to students in their respective FYS courses, thus establishing relationships that extend beyond the classroom.

Coupled with this academic introduction is our "52 days of programming" sponsored by our Student Life organizations.

For the first 52 days Converse ensures that there is a program or event each day of the week, thus providing opportunities to engage with the campus community up through Fall Break. Early retention is inevitably linked to students feeling a strong connection to campus, and our programmatic efforts strive to ensure that students feel a sense of belonging in their first few weeks at Converse.

Another great resource is our Center for Academic Excellence (CAE).

The CAE provides academic support services to assist students in becoming independent and effective life-long learners. The CAE provides a space for students to work independently or in small groups. The CAE houses tutoring and peer mentor support, and our Director works with students to develop the skills needed for success in all aspects of life.

Students experiencing academic or personal barriers are supported through our Converse Cares team. Comprised of faculty and staff, the Cares team reviews student success concerns and provides targeted support to help students overcome obstacles and remain successful in their intended paths.

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Meet Will Case

Will Case is the Associate Provost for Student Success and Associate Professor of Chemistry at Converse University. He also serves as the co-director of the Nisbet Honors Program. Prior to joining the Converse faculty he served as the Director of Chemistry Labs at the University of Richmond from 2007-2015. He was the recipient of the SCICU Excellence in Teaching Award for Converse in 2017, The Creative and Scholarly Achievement Award in 2019, and the Joe Ann Lever Award of Excellence in 2022. He was also the recipient of a SC IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Target Faculty grant in 2015 to support his research into biosensor development. 

Will is a native of Spartanburg and a graduate of Dorman High School. He received his BS in chemistry and AB in Spanish from Duke University and his PhD in chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Outside of Converse he has served as the Chair of Western Carolinas Local Section of the America Chemical Society and the Director of the Upstate Pride March & Festival held annually at Barnet Park.

Be Ignited

Dr. Russell Booker, executive director of the Spartanburg Academic Movement, also serves as a board member for StriveTogether. A national, nonprofit network of more than 70 community partnerships, StriveTogether works to ensure that every child succeeds cradle through career. SAM is proud to be a part of the StriveTogether network, which helps communities identify and scale what works in education.

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Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so.

All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of — indolence, or action.

Be ignited, or be gone.

– Mary Oliver, “What I Have Learned So Far”

When asked to share some lessons I learned over the last two years with fellow executive directors within the StriveTogether Network, Mary Oliver’s poem, “What I Have Learned So Far,” immediately came to mind. Following my retirement as a school superintendent in June 2020 and in my new role as Executive Director of the Spartanburg Academic Movement (SAM), new lessons have been an everyday occurrence for me.

After sending my teachers and students home on March 16, 2020, following our governor’s order to “temporarily” close our campuses, many of my assumptions as a long-time educator were completely upended – some on a most basic level.

For example, I always knew many of my students depended on our schools feeding program for their daily meals, but I had no idea to what extent. I would quickly learn that food insecurity and food deserts were real, and that our community was ill-prepared to provide this basic need for our children. However, I would learn that our food service staff and bus drivers were much more than essential workers as they would become the lifeline for many of our families. I would learn not to send home chocolate milk with our food delivery as a mom gently reminded one of my colleagues that the chocolate milk is nice for the child, but her family depends on “white” milk for cooking, drinking, and other essentials. She clearly understood that what we want isn’t always what we need. This lesson still rings true.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, we prided ourselves on being a completely digital school system. We boasted of eliminating the digital divide by virtue of each of our students possessing a MacBook Air computer and the vast majority having access to broadband and wi-fi. I would soon learn that the “vast majority” was wholly unacceptable as I witnessed hundreds of families who lacked the essentials to participate in a synchronous and asynchronous virtual learning environment. Yet, at the same time, I would witness the resilience and resolve of families like the Shippys who found ways to maintain consistency and routines to keep their children on track. Their persistence inspired us to redouble our efforts to secure broadband access for every child and family. These are but two examples of immediate, impactful lessons I learned from the voices of these families. Sometimes, we get so focused on the work that we forget about the people.

Perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned is posed in the form of a question by Mary Oliver. “Can one be passionate about the just, the ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit no labor to its cause?” The work we are embarking upon in seeking to fundamentally transform communities is difficult and requires passion and an uncanny resolve. I found myself pondering what my answer to this question would be, and Oliver’s answer, “I don’t think so,” is where I firmly stand. Many of us have found ourselves standing at the crossroad of indolence that Oliver speaks of. Admittedly, there were moments when this seemed like the easier choice in my ongoing pursuit for justice, equity, and equality for our children.

There have been many roadblocks, obstructions, twists, and turns in the road we have travelled over the last couple years, but Helen Keller reminded us that,

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road…unless you fail to make the turn.”

Have you found yourself at this very crossroad – between indolence or action? When in doubt, I challenge you to look to those who you serve (our children) to be reignited. This is your “why,” and holding firmly to your “why” is one of the best ways to provide nourishment when you are weary. It is how so many of the children we serve overcome the direst of circumstances. Committing to your “why” is what Mary Oliver speaks of, and this doesn’t happen in isolation.

StriveTogether has given our community and this country a clear roadmap to lead this work. It is called collective impact, and it will take all of us working together to give every child a chance to succeed. This is going to take some time, and we must stick with it. “All kindness begins with the sown seed,” and this is why I am looking forward to our time together in Chicago at our annual convening. It is appropriately titled, What Unites Us- Their Future, Our Work!

It may sound cliché, but we really are at a defining time in our nation’s history. Let’s not squander this moment. I am reminded of an old gospel hymn we sang growing up here in South Carolina by the late Rev. James Cleveland.

“I don’t feel no ways tired, I’ve come too far from where I started from.
Nobody told me that the road would be easy
I don’t believe He brought me this far to leave me.”

Nobody told any of us that this road would be easy. Too many have worked for far too long for us to walk away or lose sight of our “why.”

Friends, now is the time: be ignited!

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Dr. Russell Booker is executive director of Cradle to Career Network member Spartanburg Academic Movement in Spartanburg, South Carolina. With an unwavering conviction in the power of education, he believes our greatest hope for the future is to inspire and equip students for meaningful lives of leadership and service.

Strategies & Challenges: Postsecondary Education Attainment

Spartanburg Academic Movement has recently launched its Postsecondary Education Attainment Taskforce to identify challenges, and remedies, to college persistence and attainment among traditional students and adults.

We are asking Spartanburg’s higher education institutions to tell us what student challenges or barriers they’ve identified and how they’re already working to keep students engaged and enrolled.

As part of this work, SAM convened nearly 80 community and education leaders for a daylong session to define success around college attainment and how we can craft a joint community action plan to improve our outcomes. We also heard from six students who shared their inspirational – and very different – stories, reminding us of this work’s complexity and importance.

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Witney Fisher, Spartanburg Community College’s Dean of Student Success, discusses strategies and challenges in the first blog associated with this work:

Whether working with students at a four year public college, a private college, or at a community college, student retention is always at the heart of student success, and is something we hold as a core value.

But the transition to college is challenging.

Students require support and, as educators, it is important for us to remember the basic needs of our students need to be met. If, for example, students have stressors such as concerns related to paying their bills or childcare, or buying groceries, it will be difficult for them to focus on being a successful college student.

Over the past 20 years of work in higher education, I have categorized student challenges into three clear groups: mental health, financial concerns, and academic preparedness.

According to a recent Healthy Minds survey of Spartanburg Community College students in 2021, the following is of particular note within these three groupings and highlights the continued barriers our students experience as they navigate college.

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Mental:

Mental health is a rising concern nationwide and continues to be a top concern on college campuses.
· 28% of respondents reported feeling down, depressed, or hopeless nearly everyday
· 17% of respondents have had thoughts about suicide within the last year

Financial:

SCC is heading into our second year as tuition free. Yet finances continue to play a factor for many when trying to pay for childcare, transportation, and meeting basic household expenses.

· 83% of respondents characterized financial situation as always, often or sometimes stressful
Academic preparedness: As students enter college, there are varying levels of preparedness and understanding of college expectations, especially as we are seeing the impact of Covid-19 on how students learned.
· The percentage of students taking a transitional class (a pre-college level course) doubled from 17.3% to 31.5% from 2019 – 2021.

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It is evident our students are facing big challenges and I am confident administrators from other colleges would agree that they are experiencing similar issues within their student populations.

Spartanburg Community College continues to think creatively about how to best utilize our resources in supporting students.

SCC has implemented an early alert software system, Aviso, to help faculty and staff monitor attendance, grades, and to proactively reach out to students in order to help connect them to resources both on and off campus.

This software system has been instrumental in helping provide and connect students to wrap-around services such as childcare support and available funds for book supplies.

Additionally, this software allows us to better communicate between departments when providing student support and break down existing silos across campus.

As we head into the Fall, we are excited to be developing dedicated student Success Coaches, which is a strategy that is proven to increase student retention and completion rates.

Students who receive success coaching participate in activities to develop clear vision and goals, time management skills, and study skills.

Success coaches get to know the needs and challenges of their students and help make connections with necessary resources.

Additionally, we are in the midst of developing a partnership with the Department of Mental Health to add two mental health counselors on our campus.

This added support is critical for our students and how we are able to support them within our SCC community.

There is no easy or fast answer to increasing retention. However, it is evident that increasing our retention will only happen if we consider and offer resources and services beyond the classroom with an intentional and coordinated, college-wide approach.

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Witney Fisher

Witney is a Spartanburg native and a graduate of Rhodes College with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in higher education administration from USC-Columbia. She spent 11 years at Converse College developing a first-year experience program and creating student success strategies. In January 2018, Witney accepted a position at the Spartanburg Community College as the Executive Director of the Downtown Campus. In fall of 2021, Witney moved into the role of Dean of Student Success where she has begun developing a comprehensive approach to student success at the community college. She loves helping students realize their full potential and achieve their personal and professional goals.