A case study of retention practices at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Authors:
Tanya L. Crenshaw;Erin Wolf Chambers;Heather Metcalf
Affiliations:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA;University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA;University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Year:
2008

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Abstract

Computer science is seeing a decline in enrollment at all levels of education. One key strategy for reversing this decline is to improve methods of student retention. This paper, based on a 10-month case study at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, examines two aspects of student retention at both the graduate and undergraduate levels: community identity and community relationships. Our data shows that students feel isolated from each other, faculty, and members of the greater computer science community. Given our findings, we highlight existing programs and propose new programs which improve student-community interactions. While the lessons learned might not apply at every institution, they constitute a valuable case study for improving conditions for students at large research universities.