BATON ROUGE La.

Margaret Ambrose may only be the "interim" chancellor of Southern University, but that does not mean she is just keeping a seat warm.

Ambrose has been in charge since May. But the former executive vice chancellor has already embarked on a full-fledged student retention "crusade."

The big question is whether Ambrose, who is in her 35th year at Southern, will remain chancellor long enough to see that crusade through.

With no answer in sight, Ambrose said, she is pressing on.

When Southern's student enrollment dropped 3 percent this fall, Ambrose saw the problem was not in freshmen recruitment.

Ambrose said she saw that the problem is not attracting students to Southern. Rather, it is keeping them there until they graduate.

In the past, Southern has placed much more emphasis on recruitment than on retention.

Southern is losing more than a quarter of its students before their second year. Southern's freshman retention rate is 73.2 percent and the six-year graduation rate is only 27.7 percent, both of which are on the rise, according to school statistics.

Ambrose is working on a campus-wide "Retention Blueprint" that will eventually set specific goals for every academic department and each university office.

The pending plan also includes more student activities on campus and more student tutoring, she said.

"I'm trying to raise the consciousness of the entire SUBR family," Ambrose said. "It's not just going to be a haphazard effort. Results won't happen overnight, but we have to begin immediately."

Southern University Board of Supervisors Chairman Johnny Anderson said Ambrose's aggressive efforts are catching people's attention.

Although there has been turmoil between the board and Southern University System President Ralph Slaughter, Anderson said Ambrose's leadership of Southern's flagship campus has become a steadying force.

"She's the very rare person in academia with strong integrity who works well with both the faculty and the board," Anderson said. "If it was left up to me, she would be the chancellor permanently."