First year blues: Colleges start
targeting freshmen angst
by Tim Madigan
Knight Ridder News
As a college freshman a quarter
century ago, my first -semester hous
ing assignment was a dorm room in
the basement, next to a janitor's
closet, and away from almost every
one else. I didn't care for my room
mate. On long treks across campus,
to and from my classes, I passed
thousands of anonymous fellow stu
dents, all of whom seemed to have
eons of friends. In late afternoons of
my first term, I began to dread meal
time and the prospect of eating alone
once again in a crowded dormitory
cafeteria.
Needless to say, the first semester
of my freshman year was among the
loneliest, most miserable times of my
life, misery compounded by the fact
that I was certain I was the only loser
at the University of North Dakota
who spent his Friday nights alone in
his room.
All these years later, I find that this
might not have been the case after
all. If statistics from recent years
hold, nearly one in three freshmen
enrolling this fall at American col
leges and universities will not return
for their sophomore year. And a lead
ing cause of that attrition, experts say,
is that same loneliness, that same
sense of isolation I felt in my first
year.
"This issue of isolation, or lack of
involvement with their peers, with
faculty, with staff, is a significant pre
dictor of dropout," says Vincent Tinto
of Syracuse University, author of
"Leaving College: Rethinking the
Causes and Cures of Student Attri
tion" (University of Chicago, 1993).
"That is why, when talking about the
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issue, so many people talk about
building communities of
engagement or communities of in
volvement."
Wes Habley, of ACT, the lowa
based education-information clear
inghouse, puts it another way. By
joining study groups, the marching
band, student government or the
chess club, etc., college freshmen can
"reduce the psychological size of the
campus, establish a community
within a community," Habley says.
Students who fail to find that niche,
more so than those who are too so
cial (i.e., party too much), are more
likely to disappear from school dur
ing their freshman year, or not return
as sophomores, he says.
Not that this phenomenon is par
ticularly new. Statistics on this point
have held fairly steady for decades.
Traditionally, only 40 percent of the
students entering higher education in
any given year go on to earn degrees,
and most of the dropouts occur dur
ing or soon after the
freshman year.
In the most recent ACT statistics,
for the year 2000, 32.9 percent of stu
dents at two- and four-year colleges
and universities did not re-enroll as
sophomores, though the numbers
vary greatly depending on the type
of institution. The dropout rate at
two-year, community-based colleges
is nearly half, for example, while
freshman attrition at the most presti
gious private schools is 16 percent.
(Ivy League schools lose fewer than
10 percent of their students every
year.)
Despite those perennially high at
trition rates, student retention strate
gies have only recently become hot
topics on college campuses, Habley
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Friday, September 7, 2001
says. In the mid-1980s, hanging onto
students became a concern when the
number of college-age Americans
dropped by 400,000. More recently,
state and federal governments have
grumbled about tax dollars wasted
when students don't come back.
Not that there are simple solutions
to what has proved to be a complex
problem. "Everybody has an opin
ion. Let's put it that way," Habley
says. "It's almost impossible to say
with any assurance what causes the
failure to complete college."
But anyone who has been a col
lege freshman and had to confront the
daunting cocktail of transition that is
the first year has a good idea. Tom
Kading, a class of 2000 graduate
from Arlington, Texas, High School,
expected a college lark until he
walked into his freshman psychology
class at the University of Texas. Five
hundred other students had joined
him in the classroom.
"In high school, I never had to put
in much effort to get good grades,"
says Kading, who did not re-enroll
at UT this fall, though he plans to at
tend college again in 2002. "I had a
4.0 in high school and didn't have to
do anything. At college, you have to
be reading all the time, studying all
the time, and the commitment level
was a lot higher. It was overwhelm
ing at times. I wasn't ready."
The average student also faces
homesickness, potential for alcohol
abuse, problems with money man
agement - to name just a few of the
first year's challenges. Millions of
new college students, isolated as I
was in the 19705, try to contend with
these problems alone, suffering in
their dorm rooms. Too often, trun
cated college experiences are the re-
NM MN 1111 lIM 111
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suit, experts say.
The solution for college freshmen
seems simple. Join something. But
that can be asking too much of many
college freshmen, for whom creating
a study group or signing up for intra
mural football can be highly daunt-
ing tasks, experts say.
"If you come from a small town in
Texas, and you're going to the Uni
versity of Texas, your skills for reach
ing out and interacting are probably
dwarfed," Habley says.
Which puts the onus for reaching
out on the colleges and universities,
Habley and other experts insist. The
word they often use when describ
ing the programs needed to help col
lege freshman is "intrusive." New
students need to get involved with
their peers, with the faculty, with an
adviser, whether they feel comfort
able doing so or not.
"It's too important to leave to
chance," says Lana Low, a consult
ant who helps universities develop
student-retention programs. "With
these programs, what we're saying
to the new students is that we're se-
rious about your success. We're go
ing to put some structure to this, and
give you less and less an opportunity
to fail."
Among the most popular programs
are "learning communities" in which
college freshmen co-register with
several others with similar academic
interests and attend multiple classes
with the same students. They are also
required to interact with one another
both in and out of the classroom.
Kading says one of the best parts of
his University of Texas experience
was meeting the 13 students with
whom he attended all of his classes
during his first semester.
"I found out about that program
during freshman orientation, and I'm
glad I signed up for it," Kading says.
"I wish you could do it every year,
not just in your first semester as a
freshman. We met once a week to talk
about classes and stuff. There was al
ways someone to talk to, and we be
came good friends."
Increasing numbers of
colleges and universities arrange
dormitories by academic area, an
other attempt to promote community.
Some schools, such as Syracuse, train
residence hall staffers to intervene if
they see a student is isolated. Uni
versities also increasingly urge fac
ulty and staff members to cultivate
mentoring relationships with stu
dents. Research shows that a student
with at least one such relationship is
at a reduced risk of dropping Out.
"I don't believe that faculty know
how important they are to students,"
says Low, the student-retention con
sultant. "A student's
relationship with faculty via instruc
tion and advising is one of the most
important things that happen to them
on campus.
I can attest to that, too. It was a
creative writing teacher who took me
under his wing. I also joined the stall
of the student newspaper. I made the
baseball team. By the second semes
ter of my freshman year, I had greatly
reduced the "psychological size" of
the University of North
Dakota. By then the challenge was
squeezing classes and study• into a
social life. Trust me. Compared with
the anguish of my first semester, that
was no challenge at all.
And somewhere, in a dusty corner
of my attic, a college diploma sits as
evidence.
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