Eastern’s freshman to sophomore retention rate is 79 percent, which is about 10 percent higher than other traditionally selective universities.

The Committee on Retention Efforts will be discussing retention and graduation rates during its spring forum at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Kimberlie Moock, the director of new student programs and co-chair of CORE, said retention is an increasingly complex issue as the student population changes.

“We’ve seen a shift in our incoming class profile in the last couple of years, and so to see shifts occur changes what kind of strategies the university has to support students,” she said.

She said the retention rate has remained steady, which is positive considering the national average has decreased.

According to the CORE report from 2011, President Bill Perry set the goal of an 85 percent retention rate by 2013.

Moock said reaching that percentage would require analyzing how multiple factors conjunctively contribute to retention.

“Our retention and graduation rates are far above the national average,” she said. “To get to the 85 percent the president would like us to be at, we’re going to have to find finer-grained attributes that show us where we can help support the most students.”

CORE data also compares Eastern’s retention and graduation rates to other universities.

Moock said the comparisons help students make decisions on where to enroll, and they show the government which universities are meeting expectations.

“It’s important to know what is happening across the nation in regards to all sorts of data,” she said. “One of the biggest reasons to know where we are compared to other institutions is so we can articulate how well we’re doing to students who are looking.”

Moock said the committee also analyzes data taken from the National Survey of Student Engagement and an alumni survey.

“NSSE tells us patterns in which students are taking our support and reasons why they’re successful, and the alumni survey is reconfirming with students in a more qualitative way why students are doing the way they are,” she said.

Karla Sanders, the director of the center for academic support and achievement and co-chair of CORE, said the committee has held a forum every other year since 2006.

“We plan to continue the forum with discussions on how each faculty and staff member can contribute to the retention of students,” she said.

Blair Lord, the provost and vice president for academic affairs, said retention has always been a priority at Eastern.

“We have spent probably more elbow grease recently on the recruitment side of things because we need to turn enrollments around in the future,” he said.

He said analyzing retention data helps to figure out solutions to the problems students face.

“Sometimes students are retained better when they really connect with the institution, with their class, their colleagues, with their peer students,” he said. “So we look at what’s being done out there that seems to be attractive to students to help them feel connected to Eastern.”

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].