2003 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 1998 students, 972 female (48.6%) and 1026 male (51.4%), during the 2003 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 (94.8%), Asian (0.8%), Hispanic or Latina (0.8%), American Indian (1.3%), and African American (0.5%). Less than 11 percent of the UND respondents reported being first-generation college students whose parents did not attend college while more than 30 percent of the UND respondents were second-generation college students who came from families with both parents having college or higher degrees.

When compared to the national norms of the 11 motivational scales, UND respondents are better on 14 scales - 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, social enhancement, financial guidance, and internal validity while UND respondents need to improve on 5 scales - study habits, career closure, 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.