A s a student representative to the Retention Committee for over a year I have had many conversations with students about the issue of retention here at Green Mountain College. What I have seen come up the most is the sort of laughing matter that our retention rates have been. Certainly, it is an issue for the school and something that they are working on and want to be better.
It seems that what was reported in the November 2009 edition of the Mountaineer is a bit misleading. The “62 % of the student body” returning is not the actual retention rate of the school as a whole, but purely the freshman return rate from their first year to their second.
Across all of higher education the ability to keep students after their first year has plagued large universities to small “Environmental Liberal Arts” colleges. The full retention rate of the school is higher as those who stay after their first year are much more likely to stay through graduation. Also, when you sit down and look at the reasons given for leaving the school being “Homesick” is given far more often than reasons that related to “Drug and Alcohol Problem”
Yes, the school has work to do but it is not just up to the administration. We all need to work together to make this institution the best that it can be when it comes to serving our needs and educating the minds of one of the most important generations to emerge.
So join a club, if there are none of interest to you create your own, create plans to start a co-op grocery store in town, produce and sell your own renewable fuel, get an internship in Washington D.C., or just breathe in the peace and serenity of one the most beautiful places to go to college. There are so many opportunities available to everyone here; it is your choice if you want to make the most of those. Whatever you do, do it out of your own passion and desire to make this green place better for everyone.
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