News Editor
The percentage of students remaining enrolled at California State University, Bakersfield after their first and second years is rising.
According to an ongoing nine-year report released by the Chancellor’s Office, CSUB’s first- and second-year retention rates have risen 2.7- and 1.7 percent respectively from last year. Retention rates measure the percentage of students that remain enrolled in a university after being enrolled for the previous year.
The improvement serves as good news for a university whose first- and second-year re-enrollment percentages have been the lowest in the CSU system for four consecutive years.
Conversely, since 2009, the university has seen a 6.5-percent increase in the number of students who remain enrolled at CSUB for their sophomore year. That increase is the second-highest improvement of any CSU in that same time.
This year also represents the fourth- and third-consecutive years in which the university’s first- and second-year percentages have risen, per the same report. Despite the improvement, CSUB’s rates are still the lowest in the CSU system. They trail the system-wide average by 10.5 and 14.8 percent.
Horace Mitchell, president of CSUB, attributed the improvement in return rates to the development of the university’s engineering and agribusiness programs, both of which he suggested were tailored to employers’ needs within the community and would give students an immediate opportunity for employment after graduation.
“To the extent that we now have four-year engineering programs, students who want to be in the engineering programs that we have […] don’t have to transfer,” Mitchell said. He added that, since CSUB students were previously transferring to complete their engineering degrees, their ability to graduate here would improve the university’s graduation and retention rates.
A request made to the Institution for Research, Planning, and Assessment for retention-by-declared-major is currently pending.
Mitchell also cautioned against using re-enrollment rates as a primary indicator of CSUB’s ability to educate its students. Since retention reports do not differentiate between outgoing transfers and students who drop out, Mitchell said the reports fail to account for students who begin their academic careers at CSUB and then transfer to and graduate from other universities.
To his point, the most recent student progress report from collegeportraits.org has shown that, of the 43.9 percent of students who leave CSUB within four years of enrollment, 20.9 percent have either graduated or are enrolled at other universities. That figure climbs to 22.6 percent within six years of enrollment.
The cohort for that report was the freshman class of 2007.
Students were pleased to hear about CSUB’s improving rates. “It sucks that we’re the worst, but at least we’re making an improvement,” said Jesus Gutierrez, a senior geology major. “I’d rather be getting better than getting worse.”
Elizabeth Lewis, a junior English major, echoed Guiterrez’s sentiments. “I’m glad that more people are staying because it puts us in a better position to improve, as well as being a testament to how excellent an education we are receiving here,” Lewis said.
See the rates yourself
To view CSUB’s retention and graduation rates, go to the following link: http://www.asd.calstate.edu/csrde/index.shtml.
Under the ‘First-Time Full-Time Freshman’ tab, click which nine-year period you want to view, determine which university’s reports you would like to access and click ‘View Report.’
