Goal 2: Retain
Advance, promote and celebrate the success of all students through comprehensive advising, customized student support services and support for mental health, well-being and belonging.
Objective 2a:
Create a best-in-class transformational experience for students that is focused on meeting students’ needs and recognized for excellence in academic programming, student outcomes and increased student persistence, retention and graduation rates.
Place a chief student experience officer and CARES team on each New Jersey campus to support student retention (leading to increased tuition revenue), more students choosing to live on campus (leading to higher auxiliary revenue), and increased graduation rates.
Create a centralized student advising system, with professional advisers supporting and guiding students through course selection, cooperative learning opportunities, career counseling and navigation of academic challenges.
Invest in significant upgrades to living–learning communities and residence halls — enhancing student programming, improving housing facilities, increasing students’ options and capturing greater numbers of residential students.
Objective 2b:
Offer a personalized student experience focused on belonging, resilience, mental health and wellness and support for diverse learners and empathy — creating a distinctive opportunity for students and families seeking a supportive college environment that responds to their challenges and meets them where they are.
Provide customized social and emotional support, including high-quality, accessible mental health services and evidence-based programs to support students from underrepresented and minority populations.
Implement a group of fully grant-funded resilience training programs for students, focused within a newly created Center for Student Resilience (underwritten by a philanthropic gift and supported by state funds).
Ensure that students experience the living and learning environments on all FDU’s campuses as welcoming, inclusive and embracing diversity.
Objective 2c:
Reallocate resources and draw upon other sources to fund offices, programs and positions required to stabilize retention and moderate or stop declines in enrollment on the New Jersey campuses.