President Caboni

Dear Colleagues,

The rate at which students continue their education with us, semester to semester and year to year, demonstrates continued progress toward our goal of an 80% first-year retention rate outlined in our strategic plan, Climbing to Greater Heights. It is evidence of your commitment to provide an unparalleled academic experience for our students – from extraordinary instruction and hands-on application to residential life, campus engagement and more. While we have celebrated tremendous gains in student retention during the last several years, today I am happy to share with you a few new record-breaking (fall 2022-to-spring 2023) retention achievements:

• Overall, 85.1% of our fall undergraduate, degree-seeking students returned this spring, the highest percentage since WKU began tracking this data in 2010.
• 91.1% of our first-time, first-year students returned, representing a 4.8 percentage point increase since the 2017-2018 academic year and the highest returning percentage for this population since tracking began in 2010.
• Our underrepresented minority students returned at a rate of 90.8%, an increase of more than 10 percentage points since the 2017-2018 academic year and the highest overall percentage for this group since 2011.
• First-time, first-year students who participated in a Living Learning Community returned at a rate of 95.7%, compared to 89.6% among our non-LLC participants. Our continued and growing investments in Living Learning Communities provide students with immediate access to faculty with a shared academic interest, coupled with a supportive living environment and opportunities for academic and social engagement outside of the classroom. We see the direct effects of these investments in their retention and success.

These remarkable results demonstrate the efficacy of our commitment to a comprehensive approach to academic and social integration during the first year. Because of you, students are not only choosing WKU to begin work toward a degree, they are choosing to continue their higher education journey as a Hilltopper through graduation. Congratulations on your good work, and thank you for your extraordinary dedication to providing a transformational experience on our Hill.

Go Tops!

Best,

Timothy C. Caboni