Retention planning for the future: Challenges facing the rural land-grant university in the twenty-first century

Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach combining significant research, expert testimony and insights from campus-based practitioners, this study applies qualitative futures research to the area of college student retention at rural land-grant universities. Exploring the range of social and economic influences on retention in public higher education and the range of long-term planning options available to retention administrators, managers and practitioners, this study anticipates how choice, chance and selected socio-economic trends combine to create a scenario for retention management at rural land-grant universities. The study identifies retention challenges facing rural land-grant universities in the twenty-first century and develops an institutional plan for college student persistence which will assist administrators and practitioners in anticipating and accommodating these changes.;Employing three distinct phases of analysis, this study synthesizes a broad view of future socio-economic challenges in order to provide a progressive, full-spectrum analysis of present and future retention challenges for individuals involved in university management, programming and planning. The research analysis process occurs on three levels allowing the study to be comprehensive as well as multifaceted. The exploration of future retention trends at rural land-grant universities is conducted within the context of eight major categories: social trends; economic concerns; issues of public perception and accountability; technological innovations, integration and utilization concerns; changing demographics; trends in college student enrollment; faculty culture; and the evolving mission of the rural land-grant university. The review of significant literature represents the most formalized documented ideas regarding the prevailing socio-economic trends impacting retention at rural land-grant universities. A prospective study with interview data from four national retention experts adds a less formalized, more idealized approach to the topic tailored to the rural land-grant university tradition. Finally, a larger data set from sixteen campus-based practitioners adds an informal pragmatic layer to the analysis providing insight into the day-to-day realities of retention planning at rural land-grant universities. Contributing their opinions, based on present realities embedded in the historical, political and socio-economic trends unique to their institutions, campus-based retention practitioners present suggestions and examples for implementing retention theory in an informal practical fashion ranging from immediate efforts to strategic long-term planning.;Combining the issues of future trends, retention and new directions for rural land-grant universities, this report outlines both the retention challenges administrators, managers and practitioners may face in the future and the planning methods which may assist them with their long-term retention endeavors at the point of intersection. between future socio-economic trends and persistence a issues at rural land-grant universities. Beginning with a brief consideration of the theoretical underpinnings of the college student dropout and persistence phenomenon and an overview of the historical basis for the land-grant university tradition, the report focuses on the most evident social and economic trends and/or challenges impacting college student retention in the rural land-grant university setting. A qualitative futures-based methodology which relies extensively on the use of information and telecommunications technologies provides a framework for data collection and analysis. A series of planning and programming recommendations is Outlined for each socio-economic trend as well as a fourteen-step long-range plan for retention management at rural land-grant universities.