Everyone at the school from the receptionist to the admissions to the instructors and even the janitorial staff has a role in helping maintain student retention. I have been in many work situations where folks indicate that "is not their job," but retention is everyone's job. As a student services representative, it is disconcerting when we lose students based on the fact that they felt they were not listened to and that their concerns were not addressed. It seems that communication breaks down and questions are not asked to find out what the issue is as to why students are not succeeding. Case in point, a student reached out saying that they could not get into their student portal and when the IT kept addressing the issue via email, the student was not able to get what they needed. The case of the matter is that the student did not mean portal, but meant LMS. Once the phone call was made, the issue was resolved and the student was able to get what they needed. But it took several attempts on the part of numerous people to see what she actually needed. Unfortunately by this time the student was already behind and ready to quit. Better training is in place to avoid these issues, but it boils down to communicating directly with the student and asking questions.
