Staying Power: Colleges Work to Improve Retention Rates
By Hilary Hurd

HAMPTON, Va.
T wo years ago, Wilbur Powell was a first-semester freshman. He slept too much, watched too much TV and was not excited about the classes he was taking. By the end of the semester, he had a 1.3 grade-point average. Rudea Downs also was a first-semester freshman. She crammed for exams, did not manage her time, enjoyed her newfound sense of freedom and also slept too much. By the end of the semester, she had a 1.5 GPA. 
Both Hampton University students, who had always done well in high school, received the dreaded letter from the dean's office notifying them that they were on academic probation. Downs and Powell would now be required to attend Friday seminars about academic success and regularly meet with a faculty adviser.
They, like other students in the same boat at the historically Black Virginia university, had one semester to raise their GPA to at least a 2.0, or else.
"Basically the message is, ‘Get grades up or leave,' " says Dr. Rodney Smith, Hampton's vice president for planning and dean of the Graduate College, who was formerly vice president of administrative services. "We're kind of taking the tough-love approach. If the students don't come to the workshops or meet with the dean, administration takes that as a sign that the student is not interested in staying at Hampton."
The tough-love approach worked for Downs and Powell. Downs raised her GPA the next semester to a 2.3, and Powell ended his freshman year with a 3.6.
"I was only aiming for a 3.0," says Powell, 20, now in his junior year. He admits to being a little scared about going to college in the first place. He says he didn't know what to expect. Time management was one problem.
"Once I wrote down my schedule, I realized I had a lot of time," Powell says. His faculty mentor had him set goals and reviewed his schedule with him weekly.
Powell, who's from Bronx, N.Y., and a first-generation college student, now conducts the time management seminars with students who are where he was about two years ago.
"I tell the students to take things one day at a time," he says.
Changing his major from music to math, Powell is a resident assistant in his dormitory and also tutors college-bound students in the Hampton City Public Schools.
"Everything is perfect," Powell says.