Incoming freshmen may have a new channel to help them get through their first year at the University.
The Division of Student Life and Academic Services will be transformed on July 1 into the Division of Student Life.
This restructuring will move departments around to other divisions and change the primary focus of Student Life to the first-year experience.
Along with the renaming, the University is adding a new department: the Office of the First-Year Experience.
Eric Monday, interim vice chancellor of SLAS, said the University College will report to Academic Affairs. The Student Health Center, the Child Care Center and the Student Union will report to the Division of Finance and Administration.
“[The change] was intentional to make the division less hierarchical and more focused with the primary mission being the first-year experience,” Monday said.
He said the change will also help the department become more efficient.
“The Office of the First-Year Experience is the cornerstone of the reconfiguration,” Monday said. “The department … [will] support the entire student experience.”
Monday said the focus of the new Division is to help the University increase its retention rates.
The retention rate in 2007-08 for freshman returning for their sophomore year was 84.7 percent.
“That number needs to be higher – 87 percent or higher; ideally 90 percent,” Monday said.
The Office of the First-Year Experience will not be creating new initiatives until administrators know the progress of existing programs.
“We know that 15.3 percent of our students did not return, but what do we know about [them]?” Monday said. “What quantitative data do we know that we can understand so we can also define strategies that can keep them here?”
He said after those questions are answered, DSL can start creating different strategies.
“This is a University effort,” Monday said. “This is an initiative of the chancellor and the executive vice chancellor and provost to create the First-Year Experience, and for Student Life to play a role in leading LSU’s efforts.”
The Office of the First-Year Experience will have a first-year budget of $200,000 to $250,000. A substantial amount will go toward the three-person staff, and the rest will go toward support.
K.C. White, assistant vice chancellor and dean of students, said the theme of the change is to help student become more successful.
“If we can get it right in the first year and get you through the second and third and fourth years, we think we’re going to be stronger,” White said. “We’ll have a better institution and a more successful student as you’re walking across that stage.”
Monday said although the focus of DSL is on a student’s first year, it will be followed by specific programs to enhance the remainder of a student’s experience at the University.
Through the past six years, roughly 16 percent of freshmen did not return for their second year. That percentage reduced to 11 for sophomores returning for their junior year, according to Monday.
“Why are we talking about retention? Because it leads to graduation. Why are we talking about graduation? Because it leads to success,” Monday said. “It’s all intertwined.”