Understanding and Reducing College Student Departure: Ashe-Eric Higher Education Report, Volume 30, Number 3

Student departure is a long-standing problem to colleges and universities. Approximately 45 percent of students enrolled in two-year colleges depart during their first year, and approximately one out of four students departs from a four-year college or university. The authors advance a serious revision of Tinto's popular interactionalist theory to account for student departure, and they postulate a theory of student departure in commuter colleges and universities. This volume delves into the literature to describe exemplary campus-based programs designed to reduce student departure. It emphasizes the importance of addressing student departure through a multidisciplinary approach, engaging the whole campus. It proposes new models for nonresidential students and students from diverse backgrounds, and suggests directions for further research. Academic and student affairs administrators seeking research-based approaches to understanding and reducing student departure will profit from reading this volume. Scholars of the college student experience will also find it valuable in defining new thrusts in research on the student departure process.

John M. Braxton is professor of education in the Higher Education Leadership and Policy Program in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University.

Amy S. Hirschy is a graduate student of higher education, a research assistant, and a peer mentor at Vanderbilt University, with thirteen years of prior experience as a student services administrator.

Shederick A. McClendon is assistant professor of higher education administration in the Department of Education, Policy, Research, and Administration at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.