EVANSVILLE —Spencer Blade is determined to make sure he's not one of those college students who slips through the cracks, even though funding his educational goals has been a struggle from the beginning.
He earned an associate degree from Ivy Tech Community College in Terre Haute, and after transferring to the University of Southern Indiana, he's worked for Sprint in Evansville while taking a full load of classes.
But Blade is pushing forward. He's on track to graduate in December with a degree in business administration and a minor in marketing. Last summer, he gained experience as an intern with a professional speakers bureau in Lawrence, Kan.
And while the job market is tight for everyone, Blade knows his employment opportunities will be more plentiful as a college graduate.
"You gotta do what you gotta do," he said.Despite the financial, academic and personal obstacles that many students face, higher education institutions across the country face pressure like never before to produce more graduates.
Much is at stake for colleges and universities, especially inIndiana, which is one of the first states to use a performance-based funding formula.
About 5 percent, or $61 million, of the $1.2 billion Indiana's colleges and universities receive annually for the next two years will be tied to graduation rates and other performance metrics. That amount will grow to 6 percent in 2014 and 7 percent in 2015.
At USI, four-year and six-year graduation rates trail state and national averages for public institutions. President Linda Bennett said the desire to keep students enrolled and on paths to graduation "is not something brand new that's been thrust upon us," but the task is harder than outsiders sometimes portray.
"The students we see, they often don't take a straight line (to a degree)," Bennett said. "They might need to leave to take care of mom or dad or a child. We also see a lot of transfer students. It's much more complex than most people appreciate. But it's a healthy discussion to have."
USI staff members such as Mike Minton are on the battle's front lines. As director of student support services, Minton's office is administering a five-year, $1.2 million U.S. Department of Education grant aimed at retaining college students who have a higher risks of dropping out.
Those include low-income and learning-disabled college students, and students whose parents are not college-educated. USI has long considered it part of its mission to provide access to such students.
Minton oversaw a similar program in his previous job at Illinois State University. At USI, the grant serves 140 new students annually. It emphasizes one-on-one academic advising and tutoring, plus group sessions on time management and completing tedious financial aid forms.
"We're starting a peer mentoring program in the spring, pairing up upperclassmen with underclassmen," Minton said. "Then we also do what I would call career readiness and professional etiquette programming."
Eighteen participants will take a few days over USI's spring break for a trip to the University of Memphis, where they will learn about the school's graduate studies program and do a service-learning project.
The program has lofty goals — a 45 percent, six-year graduation rate among participating students; a 70 percent persistence rate from one fall semester to the next; and 80 percent of students in good academic standing. Minton said USI's program has reached those objectives so far.
Blade and Amanda Lupfer, a junior from Evansville, are among the 140 participants. Lupfer is pursuing a double major in psychology and studio art. She said she's worked in fast food, retail and a campus promotions position to cover the costs of schooling and "ridiculously expensive art supplies."
Lupfer plans to attend graduate school and eventually work in an art therapy program. For now, her schedule is packed — a three-hour course in her art major can involve about six hours of actual time.
Blade and Lupfer both said the USI student support services program has been helpful for them.
"It's somewhere you can go and ask any question," Lupfer said.
Retaining students is a key plank in USI's strategic plan and other local colleges also are taking seriously the nationwide push to keep students enrolled.
Community colleges have a key role
National and state political leaders speak in bipartisan voice about a shortage of people with degrees — a problem they say jeopardizes America's global competitiveness.
The U.S. has fallen to 12th in the world in the percentage of college graduates among young adults, at just above 40 percent. President Barack Obama last year called for the number to reach 60 percent in 10 years.
Major nonprofits such as the Lumina Foundation for Education, based in Indianapolis, also have adopted the cause. Its Goal 2025 program aims to grow the nation's percentage of people with "high quality degrees and credentials" to 60 percent by that year.
For Lumina, the issue isn't just about a need for more college graduates in a knowledge-based economy. The foundation argues that more graduates means higher civic engagement, less crime and an improved human condition.
Education observers note that if the nation is to grow its educational attainment, community colleges — which in many cases are already overstretched — must play a key role.
Ivy Tech's Evansville campus wants to "reach students early, advise them early, get them enrolled early," Chancellor Dan Schenk said.
The campus has opened an advising center. All new students are encouraged to visit and hash out their plans. Schenk said that generally, about three in four Ivy Tech students persist from their first fall semester to the spring semester, and about half make it to their second fall semester.
About 60 percent of Ivy Tech students are pursuing their two-year degrees part-time. The college serves numerous single parents, and Schenk said family obligations often are an obstacle students must overcome.
"We really do believe the interventions we're working on are serving us quite well," Schenk said.
The University of Evansville is nonpublic, but Tom Bear, vice president for enrollment services, said it also has every motivation — financial and otherwise — to retain its students.
"There's an ethical point in that when you offer admission, we have to believe that the student has the capability to succeed," Bear said.
The university's Student Success Team, a group of 12 staff members across different UE departments, meets every two weeks to talk about "data we're generating about the challenges students are facing," Bear said.UE reports that more than 80 percent of its students persist from their first fall semester to the next fall semester. Among those who drop out, the factor most often cited is academic difficulty, said Bear.
A majority of UE freshmen — 65 percent — say their daily study time while in high school was an hour or less.
"When they come here, it's three or more hours a day," Bear said. "When you aren't prepared academically to take on that kind of challenging agenda, you're going to fall behind."
Student Success Team members are in contact with all UE freshmen, about 650 per year, before the fall semester starts, and then they make follow-up calls.
"We work aggressively to make sure we're not losing students," Bear said.
A traditional college campus, though, isn't practical for all students, said Anthony Outlaw, who's taken a long higher education journey after being downsized by Whirlpool in 2006.
Students of all ages are turning to online and for-profit higher education institutions to attain degrees. Outlaw earned an associate degree from Ivy Tech and then enrolled at Kaplan University, an online provider. He graduated with honors from both institutions, and he's pursuing a new career in information technology.
"The benefit of online institutions is professors already are in the field you are pursuing," he said.
Outlaw has been reaching out to area companies while also exploring the possibility of starting his own business.
Anybody beginning a higher education journey must understand the value of persistence, Outlaw said, adding that he also would encourage new college students "to start researching fields before you decide to pursue a particular discipline."
Assessment needs to be fair
A new report from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA argues that graduation rates aren't necessarily an accurate way to assess an institution's quality.
It says that characteristics of individual students ought to be taken into account when assessing a school's performance. UCLA researchers found that nationally, 27 percent of first-generation college students earn degrees compared to 42 percent of students whose parents have college experience.
Some other negative predictors include a student's need to work full-time and frequent transfers by a student.
The UCLA report also underscores a link between a quality high school education and college performance.
Students who had high school experiences that more adequately prepared them for college were more likely to graduate, and the amount of time studying as a high school senior and coming to class on time influenced college graduation rates.
"We expect to graduate all students, but the probabilities differ for the students we enroll," said Sylvia Hurtado, a co-author of the UCLA study. "We need to be fair to students' needs and to the institution when assessing completion rates."
In Indiana, though, performance-based funding appears here to stay, and completion rates will carry great weight.
"Indiana's ongoing transition from an enrollment-based to a performance-driving funding formula reflects a growing emphasis on directing higher education dollars toward defined outcomes that matter most," said Teresa Lubbers, the state's higher education commissioner.
Because of the nationwide push for a more educated workforce, as well as the move to performance-based funding, universities must continue to find innovative ways to keep students enrolled, local educators say.
USI's Bennett said early academic advising and more flexibility in class schedules are important pieces of that puzzle.
"College once shaped a student's lifestyle," she said. "Now, it's the universities that have to adapt."