It Takes A Campus takes readers on a journey of author Kyle Ellis' experience from a novice in retention efforts to a campus leader in the field of student retention. In 2008, when the University of Mississippi began to take action on their retention efforts, their first time, full-time (FTFT) retention rate was 78.3%. With their recent retention record-setting year (86.5%), they have received numerous accolades, praise, and inquiries from colleagues across the nation regarding their efforts that made such a tremendous impact. It Takes A Campus can serve as a guide for campus professionals who are in the early stages of their retention efforts, as well as for seasoned retention gurus, who are seeking to improve existing programs or identify specific initiatives that proved effective and adapt them to their own student population. This book, which covers fifteen campus-wide initiatives which have been successfully implemented at the University of Mississippi and which have been instrumental in raising retention rates, is designed to be practitioner-friendly, so higher education professionals who work daily with retention efforts, can create, modify, or assess retention initiatives on their campuses. As the saying goes, it takes a village to enact positive change - or in this case, a campus.
About the Author: Dr. Kyle Ellis serves as the Director for the Center for Student Success and First-Year Experience and co-chairs the Retention Advisory Board at the University of Mississippi. He came to the University in 2004 as an academic advisor. He received his B.S. in Health and Human Performance and M.S. in Education from the University of Tennessee at Martin. He earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education in 2011 from the University of Mississippi. His dissertation focused on academic advising experiences of first-year students who were undecided in their major. Dr. Ellis' most recent publications address academic advising, freshman retention, and first-year experience courses. Dr. Ellis' commitment to student success has lead to publications, presentations, webinars, and speaking engagements, with the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), Consortium for Student Retention and Data Exchange (CSRDE), National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), American Association of University Professors (AAUP), First-Year Experience's (FYE) National Conference on Students in Transition, and private consultation opportunities. In addition to being an active contributor to various professional associations, Dr. Ellis recently finished a three-year term on the NACADA Board of Directors. Dr. Ellis strives to ensure students are successful in their higher education pursuits, and enjoys sharing his experiences with colleagues across the country.