Board of Trustees plans to increase retention rates to 80 percent by 2019
The Board of Trustees is working to raise Central Michigan University's freshman-to-sophomore retention rate from 77 percent to 80 percent by 2019.
Trustee Steven Johnson, vice president of Enrollment and Student Services, reported the university's enrollment numbers, retention and graduation rates to the Board of Trustees on Tuesday.
Johnson said the first step to reaching the 80 percent retention mark is introducing organizations and programs to new students during orientation and helping students become more acquainted to campus earlier in their college careers through Leadership Safari.
Increasing Graduation Rates
CMU's four-year graduation rate is currently 18 percent, with 53 percent of students graduating in six years. Johnson said the board will encourage students to take more credit hours to help them graduate in four years. Despite being considered a full-time student, Johnson said those taking 12 credits per semester are unlikely to graduate in four years.
Ball State University's four-year graduation rate is 26 percent, Western Michigan University's rate is 25 percent and Eastern Michigan University's rate is 13 percent. Ball State's six-year graduation rate is 55 percent, Western Michigan's rate is 56 percent and Eastern Michigan's is 40 percent.
The board plans to increase the number of students graduating in six years to 63 percent. To increase these chances, the board plans to motivate students to take 15 to 16 credits per term, or 30 to 32 earned credits per year.
The undergraduate tuition rate for the 2016-17 fiscal year is $405 per credit hour — a 2.53 percent increase from 2015-16. Johnson reporter a 5.9 percent increase in financial aid balances the increase in tuition costs, raising it from $46 million to $48.8 million.
Out of the 26,968 students enrolled at CMU, 32 to 35 percent of students received Pell Grants. About 75 to 82 percent of CMU students receive some sort of financial aid, according to Johnson's report.
CMU's cumulative six-year tuition increase is the lowest among Michigan's public universities. CMU had a 14.16 percent increase since 2011 compared to Western Michigan University's 18.71 percent and Wayne State University's 30.9 percent.
Diversifying the Campus
The board also aims to achieve a goal of having 20 percent minority student body makeup by 2020.
A minority recruitment plan identifies strategies for achieving that goal by increasing CMU's presence in historically underrepresented high schools.
Nationally, there are fewer white students and more Hispanic students graduating high school.
Public high school graduate demographics are expected to change — there will be an estimated 13.2 percent decline in white students, 17.5 percent increase in Hispanic students and a 10.6 increase in African-American students.
