Student Assisted Guidance In Engineering (Sage): A Mentoring Course To Retain Freshmen On Academic Probation

From 2005-06 to 2006-07, the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign realized a 30 percent overall increase of underserved populations in engineering due to more aggressive recruitment efforts. Successful recruitment of students; however, does not guarantee successful retention. At the end of the fall 2006 semester, 33.3% of the Black freshmen and 17.3% of the Hispanic freshmen were on academic probation. Overall, 9.3% of engineering freshmen were on probation. SAGE – Student Assisted Guidance in Engineering) was a three-hour class initiated in the spring semester of 2007 to increase retention among these students on probation. The major outcome of the qualitative analysis was that students’ probation experience extended beyond the academic realm. When asked what the most pressing issues were in their lives, students discussed family issues, relationship difficulties, financial stresses and so on – above and beyond their probation status. As such, above and beyond the academic assistance, SAGE represented a form of caring by the college, addressing probation students in a more comprehensive and responsive manner. Overall, the retention rate of the enrollees was 72.9%, which was seen as a substantial success. However, by the end of the subsequent semester, many students were back on probation or were dropped from the university. This paper examines what happened during SAGE and reflects on what must be improved upon.