Indiana State University hopes to adjust to decline in its 4-year grad rate

Johnson, who wants to study psychology, said in the first few days he’s already improved his writing skills. “I’ve never written with such detail in my entire life,” he said.

Rusk, who is from Indianapolis and hopes to study criminology, said he’s learning about the importance of time management in college. He’s also finding that the faculty “want you to succeed, and they let you know that.”

LEAP is just one of the programs the university has to help students succeed and graduate. Officials hope that eventually translates into better, on-time graduation rates — which affects ISU’s state funding.

According to a new state report, ISU’s four-year graduation rate dropped slightly over a five-year period, when comparing freshmen who started in 2005 with those who started in 2010. For the class starting in 2005, 20.5 percent graduated in four years, while the on-time graduation rate for those starting in 2010 was 19.4 percent, a drop of 1.1 percentage points.

Statewide, the on-time graduation rate for public college students pursuing a bachelor’s degree improved nearly 7 percentage points over that same time span, from 29.5 percent for the 2005 freshman cohort to 36.1 percent for the 2010 freshman class.

Those data come from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s 2015 Indiana College Completion Report, which was released Wednesday. It includes statewide data and information for each public college.

ISU officials say they’ve put in place several measures to improve those graduation rates, and they expect to see some tangible results at the end of summer. Also, they made some adjustments in recruiting after the freshman class starting in 2010 did not fare so well.

John Beacon, vice president for enrollment management, marketing and communications, said ISU recruited heavily in the Chicago area in 2010, which helped the university significantly boost freshman enrollment that fall by 765 students or about 42 percent. Freshman enrollment went from 1,801 students in 2009 to 2,566 students in 2010.

Several of those Chicago-area students who achieved a certain grade-point could take advantage of a Midwest consortium scholarship that meant significantly reduced tuition costs at ISU. But they had to maintain a 2.5 grade-point average to keep the scholarship, and ISU lost several of those students when their grade-point averages fell below that threshold and they couldn’t afford to stay.

ISU had recruited from the Chicago metropolitan area, including Cook County and inner city Chicago. The university learned an “interesting lesson,” Beacon said. “No one could have anticipated we weren’t ready to deal with the academic issues that surge in population brought with it.”

After that, ISU “restrategized” its marketing in the Chicago area. “We went to the suburbs where students are better able to academically compete,” he said. “I think it has helped. We’ve had better classes every year.”

Now, the number of students conditionally admitted at ISU is down, while the average GPA of entering freshmen has improved, he said.

The state report also shows that for full-time students who started at ISU in 2006, 24.7 percent graduated in four years; 51.8 percent completed within six years; and 58.4 percent graduated within eight years. In some cases, those students graduated at different colleges.

When looking at ISU full-time students who both started in 2006 and graduated at ISU, 21.3 percent finished in four years; 41.9 percent finished in six years; and 44.4 percent graduated in eight years.

LEAP is a mandatory program for at-risk ISU students to ensure they’re ready for the rigors of college; if they don’t successfully complete it, they won’t be enrolled. LEAP is an intensive three-week residential program that helps students improve study skills and successfully transition to college.

On Thursday, some ISU students who attended LEAP in past years talked about what it takes to succeed.

ISU student Ryan Drzewiecki, who participated in LEAP in 2013, is one of the counselors for this year’s program. LEAP “taught me that motivation isn’t going to get me where I need to go, necessarily.” He had to apply self-discipline. He tells LEAP participants there will be times they won’t be motivated to do an assignment or they would rather party or hang out with friends than study.

“You have to discipline yourself and know that it’s for a good cause. That’s one of the hardest things to learn,” said Drzewiecki, a marketing major from Dyer.

Aliyah Washington, who participated in LEAP in 2011 and is now a senior, also is a counselor for this year’s program. LEAP “is a great second chance to get into college,” she said. She learned from it that “you don’t have to be the way you were. Your past doesn’t define who you are. You can change.”

LEAP gave her the discipline she needed to succeed and showed her she was capable of doing college level work, she said.

Jermanie Branch, who went through LEAP in 2013 and is now a junior, said the program “helped me get prepared for college-level classes” and meet new people. She also learned how to manage her time and set priorities.

This is the second year the higher education commission has released a report focused on providing a comprehensive picture of college completion in Indiana.

Stephanie Wilson, CHE spokeswoman, said every campus has a different student population. Also, the report, which looks at data from past years, may not reflect the positive effects of more recent efforts implemented at the state and campus levels. “We are hopeful as we move into the future, we’ll see some of those positive effects,” she said.