CU Academic Success Center

Observant students will have noticed the many posters from the Academic Success Center strewn about campus in recent weeks. This is because the Academic Success Center, according to Director of Retention Sarah Beasley, wants nothing more to help students in their academic endeavors.

“We wanted to get the word out on campus about the Academic Success Center... who we are and what services and help we can provide to students,” Beasley stated, “I think there are some students who have either never heard of the Academic Success Center or they are not sure what we do. The Academic Success Center (ASC) at Concord University is a place for students to come for help--whether it is assistance with coursework, advising, financial aid, or another reason.”

Beasley, who started as Concord University Director of Student Retention in January of 2014 from her former posi- tion as West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission as the director of statewide aca- demic initiatives, has lofty ambitions for keeping the retention rate high. Retention refers to students that stay at Concord University and do not drop out.

“Student retention over the last five years [freshmen to sophomore retention] has averaged about 64%. Our goal is to raise that by 1% each year for the next five years,” she said. “We also would like to implement a case management approach to working with students, so we are working with the Social Work faculty and master’s students to help us with that project. This will allow us to increase our outreach, identify students earlier on who may need our assistance, and better track and evaluate our services.”

While these are ambitious ideas, many students are unaware of the Academic Success Center is and what it does. Beasley had much to say regarding this topic. “The Academic Success Center is in- tended to be a resource for all CU students. We are a bit of a one stop shop. We can put students in touch with resources or people across campus. Also, by being more proactive and identifying students early on who may need help, we hope to increase retention at Concord. For example, we encourage faculty and staff to alert our office if a student is strug- gling academically or socially. We plan to offer more student workshops in the coming weeks that cover topics such as study skills, note taking techniques, and learning strategies.”

At first it would appear that the Academic Success Center wanted to let students know of their services for midterms. However, the posters were merely to inform students of the Academic Success Center and what they can do to help the students who need it. By doing this, Beasley hopes that The Academic Success Center will be able to raise the school’s rate of retention by at least 1% every year. “Retention for the 2012 cohort of for first-time freshmen, first-time transfer students, and readmitted students [that is they returned in] 2013] was 64.5%. We don’t yet have numbers for this year,” said Beasley. It would seem that with their upcoming plans, the Academic Success Center is determined to make the number of students retained higher than it has ever been. “If anyone is having difficulty in classes, if they’re struggling at all, if they think that they simply can’t make it,” said Beasley, “I urge them to come over to the Rahall Building and see what exactly the Aca- demic Success Center can do for them to get them back on track”. Anyone interested in their services need only contact Steve Jarvis in the atrium in the Rahall Building, or email him at jarvis@concord.edu.