An Application of Proactive Organizational Communication in Support of an Institutional Objective Regarding Student Retention At Southwest Missouri State University
type: CreativeWork
description: During the fifties and sixties colleges and universities recruited from what seemed like an infinite pool of traditional-age students (age 18) and saw no need to worry about why students were dropping out. But times soon changed. By the mid 1970's, the nation's birth rate dropped a little more than three million from the early sixties. The declining birth rate signaled danger (a shrinking recruitment pool of 18- year-olds) to colleges and universities in the early 1970's through the 1980's. In view of the shrinking recruitment pool of 18-year-olds, institutions of higher education, including SMSU, are now coming to view dropouts in a decidedly different manner. A new trend among colleges and universities is to identify program and strategies intended to prevent students from dropping out--"retention." Typically, SMSU has treated the dropout problem with a "problem/program" approach. But can the dropout problem at SMSU be treated as a communication problem? In other words, are students dropping out (or withdrawing) because certain other information and/or communication needs are not being addressed? To respond intelligently data was accrued from adminstering the ACT Withdrawing/Nonreturning Student Survey (short form) across three semesters (Fall 1985, Spring 1986, Fall 1986); the age group of the respondents is treated as the independent variable in a bivariate analysis with all remaining questionnaire items (or variables). The data indicated five major issues facing the at-risk audience: (1) Family responsibilities; (2) Experienced emotional problems and felt alone or isolated; (3) Dissatisfied with my grades and inadequate study habits; (4) Did not budget money correctly; and (5) Conflict between demands of job and college. Since the overriding purpose of this project is to offer a specific test of D'Aprix's proactive organizational communication model, a communication plan was designed to address the five issues and to meet the communication and/or information ne…
abstract: During the fifties and sixties colleges and universities recruited from what seemed like an infinite pool of traditional-age students (age 18) and saw no need to worry about why students were dropping out. But times soon changed. By the mid 1970's, the nation's birth rate dropped a little more than three million from the early sixties. The declining birth rate signaled danger (a shrinking recruitment pool of 18- year-olds) to colleges and universities in the early 1970's through the 1980's. In view of the shrinking recruitment pool of 18-year-olds, institutions of higher education, including SMSU, are now coming to view dropouts in a decidedly different manner. A new trend among colleges and universities is to identify program and strategies intended to prevent students from dropping out--"retention." Typically, SMSU has treated the dropout problem with a "problem/program" approach. But can the dropout problem at SMSU be treated as a communication problem? In other words, are students dropping out (or withdrawing) because certain other information and/or communication needs are not being addressed? To respond intelligently data was accrued from adminstering the ACT Withdrawing/Nonreturning Student Survey (short form) across three semesters (Fall 1985, Spring 1986, Fall 1986); the age group of the respondents is treated as the independent variable in a bivariate analysis with all remaining questionnaire items (or variables). The data indicated five major issues facing the at-risk audience: (1) Family responsibilities; (2) Experienced emotional problems and felt alone or isolated; (3) Dissatisfied with my grades and inadequate study habits; (4) Did not budget money correctly; and (5) Conflict between demands of job and college. Since the overriding purpose of this project is to offer a specific test of D'Aprix's proactive organizational communication model, a communication plan was designed to address the five issues and to meet the communication and/or information ne…
author: Busby, Charles M.
keywords: Communication
date published: 1987-05-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:15:23Z
provider: Missouri State University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Missouri State University