Solution
Here enters ReUp. ReUp and A&M University-Central Texas produced results immediately upon launch in late spring of 2019. From there enrollment kept increasing term-over-term, with Fall 2020 enrollment more than doubling from a year earlier. Clifton Jones, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management described the value of this information:
“Early on in the process, even before we started recovering students, I think one of the benefits was the initial information from ReUp after they first started making contact with students. We started learning what they were saying about why they stopped out, what were the challenges they were facing. This got us looking at life balance, academic preparedness, a connectedness to campus, finances – all those which are pretty common, but we got more detail about, ‘Oh, this student had this challenge’ and this might be a little bit more nuanced than what we would get just from them filling out a drop card or the information we collect internally.”
However the impact ReUp has extends beyond students returning. As ReUp works with students navigating the re-enrollment process, information is shared back with the school about common obstacles, trends, and why the students left in the first place, being able to identify the students needs and what is truly motivating them in their day to day lives. Through the Network, students who stopped out from an institution and are now looking for a degree program or modality not offered by their original college or university, can be connected to another ReUp Network institution, and still receive ReUp coaching to guide them through the journey. Jones remarked, “We joined the ReUp Network, and are looking forward to how that can continue to contribute to our growth.”
