Lincoln University starting new program to improve freshmen retention

Starting this coming summer, Lincoln University will start a new summer bridge program to help freshman retention rates.

So far, at least 120 students have signed up for Project Jumpstart, according toLincoln University’s Dean of Student Affairs Dr. Jerome Offord, Jr.

“Part of why we’re doing the program is to give students the opportunity to have a transition from high school to college,” Offord said. “The first semester is usually pretty tough on students that are transitioning.”

Lincoln University’s first-time freshman retention rate is currently 61 percent, Offord said. That is slightly lower than the national average of public institutions at 64.2 percent, according to a recent report by U.S. News.

However, that is more than 25 percent lower than the University of Missouri’s freshman retention rate the past year which was 87.2 percent, this before last fall’s campus protests.

Not only is the summer bridge program to increase retention at Lincoln University, but Offord said it is also a national trend.

“President Obama and others have been talking about this college completion and getting students done in four years,” Offord said. “We’re trying to reduce the amount of debt, reduce the amount of time students are in college. And so having this program and having students get eight credits in the summer will help us meet that trajectory.”

The program will run from mid-June to mid-August. Incoming students who participate in the program will be able to take up to eight credit hours focusing on general education classes.

Student Johnathan Jackson told ABC 17 he wished the program would have been available when he was an incoming student.

“It would’ve helped me out tremendously coming from, I graduated high school at a 1.9,” Jackson said. “So for students like that to come and have the opportunity to do in the summer early and for about two months before everybody else gets here, I think that’s gonna make them a little more comfortable and it’s gonna make that transition even easier for them.”

Anywhere from 200-500 students take classes at Lincoln University in the summers, according to Offord. That is compared to the average 3,000 students that take classes in the spring and fall semesters.