Publication: A Call for Values Congruence

A Call for Values Congruence determines college and university presidents must:
- Reaffirm the primacy of an academic culture for the campus community. Some simple first steps include reestablishing a five-day academic week, and requiring an acceptable level of academic performance.

- Articulate collegiate expectations for student groups by enforcing clear policies addressing underage drinking, and establishing periodic dialogues between university officials and advisers to Greek chapters.

- Encourage the development of programs and policies addressing alcohol abuse based on research findings and oversee their implementation.

- Establish a periodic certification process for all recognized social fraternities and sororities. Preferably, the certification would be conducted by or include representation external to the campus. The focus would be on individual chapters’ records of abiding by policies, and should result in commendation, certification, probationary status or, when justified, closing of a chapter.

- Dedicate necessary resources to promote healthy lifestyles for all students.

- Consider the adoption of a policy whereby official campus recognition is given only to those Greek organizations that have adopted and implemented membership and behavioral standards congruous with those adopted by the North-American Interfraternity Council.

Graduation Rate Outcomes: Student Success in State Colleges and Universities

Executive Summary
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities Graduation Rate Outcomes Study is a collaborative effort to understand the reasons why some public four-year colleges and universities have an unusually good record of retaining and graduating students. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), The Education Trust (Ed Trust), and The National Association of System Heads (NASH) sponsored the study to help campuses improve graduation rates.

Twelve institutions participated in this study. Each campus was visited by a study team that submitted a campus report. The campus reports were analyzed and the final report was written by Peter Ewell of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, with assistance and collaboration by team leaders, project directors and others.

The study campuses were:
California State University Stanislaus
Clemson University, South Carolina
City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justic
Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina
Louisiana Tech University
Montclair State University, New Jersey
Murray State University, Kentucky
Northwest Missouri State University
Truman State University, Missouri
University of Northern Iowa
University of Wisconsin – La Crosse
Virginia State University

The stories told about these colleges and universities underscore the diversity of successful approaches to retaining and graduating students. Good performance here is not just the province of small, selective institutions. With nurturing and care, it can be achieved at any AASCU campus. But these stories also suggest that simply finding “best practices” somewhere and “plugging them in” is unlikely to be effective.

Results
While study campuses were all successful in retaining and graduating students, they were remarkably diverse in their institutional characteristics. They exhibited an extraordinary variety of specific strategies to promote student success. What is distinctive among those institutions with high graduation rates is the overall campus culture within which these practices are deployed, and the quality of presidential and administrative leadership that keep them moving and coordinated.