Following through with his plans to improve the university’s poor retention and graduation rates, Provost Robert Holub has created a new administrative position.
Holub gave this new position, vice provost for academic operations, to Todd Diacon, who has been heading the Department of History for the past four years.
Holub said Diacon’s previous experience will provide a strong foundation for the challenges he will likely face in his new position.
“Todd knows people; he knows the administrative structures at the lower levels, like department heads and deans, better than I do,” Holub said and added that Diacon is also more familiar with the higher levels of the administrative structure, including the responsibilities of the president and chancellor.
Holub is concerned that the university’s retention rate, the expected number of students returning for the next academic year, is lower than its peers. During the first Faculty Senate meeting last fall, he said that UT has a retention rate of less than 80 percent. Furthermore, more than 20 percent of undergraduate freshmen leave the university before entering their sophomore year.
The university is classified in a peer group of 13 schools in states such as Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Texas. UT ties with the University of Kentucky for 12th place among the 13 schools, at 78 percent retention. Florida and Georgia head the list, with about 93 percent retention each.
In the last 12 years, UT’s retention rate climbed to more than 80 percent only once–in 1992. Since then, this rate has hovered between 75 and 80 percent. The Hope Scholarship has raised numbers slightly, according to the Provost’s Forum online.
Retention from first to second year is the lowest of all. Of all students that drop out of UT, 50 percent do so before entering their sophomore year.
Diacon said he has already started exploring the problem.
“I’ve been asked to work with others to come up with policies to improve student retention,” Diacon said.
Diacon will represent the provost’s office on a Retention Task Force that will examine the reasons and solutions for this problem. The task force will consist of professors, experts in this field and students who will voice their concerns and opinions.
One plan calls for a freshman seminar course to meet once a week for an hour. This course would be taught by a tenure or tenure-track professor and focus on a single subject, like a specific book. In the past Diacon has taught courses on Latin American history and has considered teaching a freshmen seminar on samba, a Brazilian music form.
The classes would be small, with no more than 20 students.
“The goal would be to cut down on anonymity in lecture halls and get the students to know their professors,” Diacon said.
The University of California-Berkeley, which has one of the highest of retention rates – 96 percent, offers such a program.
Strict progression requirements may also be loosened. Some majors require higher GPAs than what the university deems academically acceptable. A student may have a 2.0 GPA, a C average, but would be unable to declare a major that requires a 2.5 GPA.
Anthropology is one department that requires a 2.5 GPA to advance into the major. A student could be in good academic standing with the university but not major in Anthropology. Being declined from a major discourages many students, leading them to drop out of the university.
Beyond retention, Diacon will focus on improving UT’s poor graduation rate. UT graduates fewer than 40 percent of its students in four years and 60 percent in six years.
He will also administer program reviews, which are conducted every 10 years. A committee of two professors from outside universities and three UT professors not associated with the department under review will review a department and examine any shortcomings or strengths it may have.
Diacon settled into his new job on Jan. 2 and already has held meetings with the deans, advising centers and staffs of the various colleges.
“I’m trying to gather information,” Diacon said.
Diacon received his Ph.D. in Latin American history from the University of Wisconsin. He came to UT in 1989 and in 2002 became the head of the history department. His book “Stringing Together a Nation” won the 2005 Warren Dean Prize for best book on Brazilian history published between 2003-04. He also serves as the NCAA Faculty Athletics representative.
