Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas University has implemented a new strategy to improve retention among students who failed out of its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World (http://bit.ly/22nhA3G ) reports that 150 students were offered to participate in a new faculty mentoring program.
The college's dean, Carl Lejuez, said that 125 of the students who failed came back to school through the program. Only one of those students has since left.
The program's goal is to help these students' grades so that they can continue to be enrolled. The college's policy is to place students on academic probation if they have a cumulative GPA of less than 2.0 at the end of the term. To avoid being dismissed, they must either return to good academic standing or meet a minimum term GPA to stay on probation.
"This isn't just being permissive; this isn't just ignoring the rules," Lejuez said. "This is saying we've identified that we have an issue, we are planning to do something comprehensive, but in the short term it seems only reasonable to marshal the resources we have to help these struggling students."
He said the hope is that the quickly hatched program can help student retention until a more concrete faculty mentoring program can be implemented.
Lejuez started his job at the university Feb. 1, but he's been working on the program with faculty and administrators since he was hired last fall.
Lejuez said that some faculty members were turned down from the program because more than necessary volunteered. The faculty members do not receive extra compensation for being a mentor.
___
Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
