The newly created LSU Retention Committee reached out to faculty and staff members Tuesday at the Provost’s Symposium in an effort to help students graduate.
The symposium, hosted by the Faculty Senate, Academic Affairs and the Retention Committee, featured the presentation “Get LSU students to focus on learning instead of grades: Teach them how to learn!”
Saundra McGuire, assistant vice chancellor for learning, teaching and retention in Student Life and chairman of the Retention Committee, said the Provost’s Symposium is the first campus-wide event for the Retention Committee, which was formed in January.
The symposium focused on efficient teaching methods, McGuire said.
“A lot of students leave because they lost TOPS, and they lose TOPS because of their GPA,” McGuire said.
McGuire gave the presentation and focused on study tips, learning research and ways to improve students’ grades.
The slideshow stated, “When all of these entities [the student, the instructor and the institution] take full responsibility for student learning, we will see a significant increase in student learning, performance, retention and graduation! And that’s exactly what the LSU Retention Committee is all about.”
  Video: Provost’s Symposium
 
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor John Hamilton showed interest in forming the committee, said Kurt Keppler, vice chancellor for Student Life and Enrollment Services and committee member.
“The Retention Committee is a group of people that has been put together to improve retention until graduation,” McGuire said.
She said 62 percent of students who begin as full-time freshmen graduate from the University within six years, and the goal of the committee is to raise this number.
“We are looking at why students aren’t graduating at a rate we would like them to be,” McGuire said.
The committee is comprised of 41 representatives from a wide variety of University departments.
The committee is divided into subcommittees based on four barriers to retention — academic, engagement, institutional and personal — and the deans also have a subcommittee, Keppler said.
The committee held its first meeting Jan. 25. Committees and subcommittees meet monthly.
 
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Contact Celeste Ansley at [email protected]