Sunday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette also featured a front-page article in the Arkansas section about UCA’s residential college program.
“UCA’s faculty-in-residence program is almost unmatched among Arkansas’ public, four-year universities, but it is increasingly common nationally,” according to the article.
“At UCA, Sally Roden, associate provost and dean of undergraduate studies said, ‘More and more schools are adopting this program, because… we’re getting the results,’ that show it improves student performance and retention. According to UCA, 77 percent of the freshmen living in one of its residential colleges in 2005 stayed in school in 2006, compared with 70 percent of all UCA freshmen. Further, UCA-provided statistics indicate students who live off-campus typically average a grade-point average of 2.0 on a scale of 4, while on-campus students average 2.5, and those in a residential college average 3.0. ‘Research shows that if [students] have a connection with a faculty member [and other] students, they?re more likely to stay,’ Roden said. ‘If they?re successful, they?re going to be satisfied. If they?re satisfied, they?re going to stay.'”
