2002 College Student Inventory of Retention Management System

The College Student Inventory (CSI) of the Noel-Levitz Retention Management System is a measurement tool that asks students to reflect on academic, personal, and social experiences and perspectives. Students hence identify their cognitive and affective attrition indicators.

The University of North Dakota administered the CSI Form B to 1722 students, 849 female (49.3%) and 873 male (50.7%), during the 2002 summer orientation. Three reports that provide analyzed results are generated. The first report is for each individual student, second for each student’s academic advisor, and, the third is an overall institutional report.

Demographically, the UND respondents identified themselves as White (95.6%), Asian (1.1%), Hispanic or Latina (0.7%), American Indian (0.5%), and African American (0.2%). Excluding 108 respondents who did not identify their majors, 353 respondents did not declare their majors, and 1261 respondents reported their majors in 51 academics disciplines. Less than 12 percent of the UND respondents reported being first-generation college students whose parents did not attend college while 31 percent of the UND respondents were second-generation college students who came from families with both parents having college or higher degrees.

An overall 50 percent of the first-generation freshmen compared to 75 percent of the second-generation college freshmen respondents perceived their academic abilities to be above average or better. Further, an overall 44 percent of the first-generation freshmen compared to 54 percent of the second-generation freshmen intended further educational pursuits beyond undergraduate studies.

When compared to the national norms of the 17 motivational scales, UND respondents are better on 14 scales - study habits, intellectual interests, verbal confidence, math and science confidence, desire to finish college, attitude toward educators, sociability, family emotional support, opinion tolerance, sense of financial security, career closure, social enhancement, financial guidance, and internal validity while UND respondents need to improve on 3 scales-academic assistance, career counseling, and personal counseling.

UND respondents are above the national average mean scores on college preparatory, high school grades, and parental education while they are slightly below the national norm on desire to transfer and desire to pursue graduate degree. Based on the overall motivational assessment results compared with the national trend, UND respondents are less likely to drop out, have academic difficulties, experience educational stress, and ask for institutional help.

This CSI information helps students reflect on how to maximize their college experience, helps academic advisors equip with specific intervention strategies and able to identify students with particular concerns and, and gives the Enrollment Management Team a snapshot of our first year students as a group. An anticipated follow-up study will be conducted to investigate effects on freshman retention and subsequent graduation rates due to these combined efforts.