IOWA CITY, Iowa, July 10, 2007 - Noel-Levitz, the leading higher education consulting firm specializing in student recruitment, financial aid, retention, market research, and Web and communications development, today announced the winners of the 2007 Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Awards. The awards recognize innovative campus retention programs that have encouraged students to succeed and persevere through graduation.

"The winning programs for the 2007 Retention Excellence Awards went above and beyond in terms of generating identifiable and measurable institutional outcomes, demonstrating originality in program development and using resources in a creative manner," said Tim Culver, vice president, Noel-Levitz. "We are pleased to recognize this year's honorees for their efforts. These programs exhibit some of the best practices currently being applied to retention management and will no doubt serve as role models for other institutions." The following institutions will be formally recognized on July 12 for their winning retention efforts at this year's National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing and Retention in Orlando:

• Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN: "Multicultural Learning Communities" Building on the past success of Learning Communities, Purdue University created a Multicultural Learning Communities (MLC) project with assistance from a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education in fall 2003. The MLC effort created several new learning communities that brought additional multicultural topics and issues into the curriculum and co-curriculum. The program has a minority participation of 35 to 45 percent and has measurably affected retention for both minority and non-minority participants - the positive retention differences for participants are statistically significant. Overall, first-to-second year retention for participants is 90.57 percent compared to 84.17 percent for non-participants at Purdue. Minority participant retention is 87.1 percent compared to 78.94 percent for non-participants. Female participants are retained at 90.91 percent compared to 85.91 percent for their non-participant counterparts. Further, MLC participants display better campus integration and have a more positive outlook on the campus diversity climate.

• University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO: "Suspension Waiver Program" The University of Central Missouri (UCM) created a closely monitored plan for high-potential students who have been previously suspended because of low grades. The Suspension Waiver Program (SWP) identifies students who, according to most student predictor profiles, should have been able to succeed at UCM and allows them to continue their academic progress as long as they meet certain criteria and agree to academic assistance. Once students are identified as meeting the requirements and they agree to participate in the program, they sign a contract of commitment, which requires the student to abide by certain stipulations and provides several interventions and academic strategies. The fall-to-fall retention rate of the 95 students who participated in the program between spring 2005 and fall 2006 is 83.16 percent, 12.76 percent higher than university-wide retention for all students in that time frame. The average semester GPA for these high-risk students was 2.23 while participating in the program, with students achieving an average increase of 0.26 in their cumulative GPA while in the program.

• West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV: "Adventure WV" Adventure WV was largely conceptualized and developed by a Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources graduate student who researched existing orientation programs and developed the Adventure WV model. Created as an alternative to the traditional University 101 orientation, one of the most important goals of Adventure WV is to improve student retention rates at the university by helping "to orient and transition new students for life at WVU." Through the program, students are placed in situations where it is necessary to develop positive relationships with peers and to learn life-skills that help them deal effectively with new or difficult situations. Students are also required to participate in community service projects to further develop leadership and teamwork skills. Data collected by the university from 2004 and 2005 show that the Adventure WV has had a positive impact on retention rates for participants. The general retention rate of WVU students was 81 percent after their first year, with Adventure WV participants being retained at 90 percent.

The Retention Excellence Awards Program was established by Noel-Levitz in 1989 to honor outstanding achievements in student retention by colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. Winners are selected by a national panel comprised of leading campus-based retention practitioners. Case studies of the winning schools are available on www.noellevitz.com.

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Posted 07/11/07 to www.NASFAA.org. Posting of information in Constituent News is done as a service to Members and does not imply endorsement or support by NASFAA. NASFAA does not review this information for content or accuracy.