Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Education news and issues in the Ozarks.

Putting MSU Students in a Better Position to Identify as Bears

Scott Harvey
/
KSMU

Students tend to stay in college if they can identify with the school. That’s one of the guiding principles in improving retention of first-time, full-time students at Missouri State University, according to President Clif Smart.

He outlined the goal as part of his State of the University address last month. Smart said improving upon MSU’s roughly 75 percent retention rate is twofold: academic improvements in the way of more advising, and putting students in a better position to identify as Bears.

“So we’re looking at orientation programs and SOAR programs and family programs, and our residence hall folks have come up with a plan that in three years will have twice the communities we have now to try to intentionally connect students to each other and the university,” Smart said.

MSU hopes to raise its retention rates to above 80 percent. Smart says despite the below average figures, the school continues to recruit well, growing in 17 of the past 19 years. But an improved retention rate will not only be more attractive to future students and their parents, but lead to better graduation rates down the road.

Smart’s speech in September also touched on efforts to improve diversity amongst faculty, citing a growing diversity in students.

“Staff is probably the hardest area because we hire many custodians, ground workers, clerical people from Springfield – that’s a 90 percent white area – and so there are challenges there and we haven’t really moved that needle very much. Faculty, off the top of my head I’d say about 12 percent of our faculty are diverse ethnically. That’s not keeping up with the population of our state, that’s not keeping up with the population of our students.”

Yet MSU is adding roughly 15-20 new faculty members a year as enrollment grows. Smart believes the school has the ability to recruit faculty from all across the country from all different backgrounds.

“I think it’s just a matter of recruiting people into the pool. And then once they’re in the pool we’re gonna pick the very best person no matter their circumstances, but we need to do a better job of intentionally recruiting people of all backgrounds into our pools so we can make the best hires.”

Part of these faculty hires would be to help inspire diverse students, Smart says. While the other element is that people with different backgrounds bring different ideas and experiences.  

Hear the entire interview with President Smart, as part of our monthly program Engaging the Community, by clicking play above.