Slight decrease in CMU’s one-year, two-year retention rates

Editor’s note: This story has been rewritten from Wednesday’s story about retention for clarification.

Central Michigan University has a high retention rate this year despite the dwindling number of new freshmen and transfer students enrolled.

This year, the one-year retention rate was 75.4 percent, only a .4-percent decrease from last year’s rate. Additionally, the two-year retention rate was 67.3 percent, a 1.9-percent decrease from last year.

According to a January Central Michigan Life article, the Office of Institutional Research and Planning reported CMU had a 90.78-percent retention rate of freshmen from first semester to second semester over the past five years, and that figure hasn’t dropped below 90 percent since 1996.

Karen Hutslar, registrar for CMU, said there are several different factors that influence students’ decisions to either stay at CMU or transfer to other institutions.

“I believe that making a connection to the university outside of academic work is crucial in influencing one’s decision to stay at any university,” Hutslar said. “There is a lot of research that has been done and generally you will find that students who feel connected with their university through an organization or other involvement are more likely to stay until graduation.”

CMU currently has 27,693 students enrolled, a number that has decreased 2.2 percent from last year.