A Working Model: IU South Bend Business Cohort Sets Standards for Retention and Student Success

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to provide a companion qualitative study to a quantitative project I had completed the previous semester on positive and negative experiences that affected student confidence toward retention and graduation at IU South Bend. While that study focused on first-year, first semester students and was randomized to the greatest possible degree, selecting subjects from three disparate programs designed to increase student success in the transition to college and timely graduation, this study analyzes a very specific subset of students from that group who were in their fourth semester of one of those programs that had been developed by the Judd Leighton School of Business and Economics. Namely, the Business Cohort Model, a response to a mandate given by the Leighton Foundation, as part of the naming gift for the school to the university, to establish a program designed to increase student retention within the business school itself. I had served as a Peer Advisor all four semesters for which this program had been in place and when this research was conducted. The students I observed and interviewed were the first to complete the cycle. Included are a detailed participant observation analysis, five student interview excerpts, and recommendations developed in response to the research conducted.