College degree, The U of M: not for everyone

Not all students at The University leave with degrees.

Mick Parrish, a former film theatre major at The U of M, dropped out of school after his first semester.

"I was doing way too many drugs, and I was up all night playing music in clubs," he said. "I don't remember much."

But Parrish said no one thing led to his withdrawal.

"The program was acceptable, nothing more, nothing less," he said. "The people were decent. I think the importance of a degree is slowly dwindling away. Luck and hard work are the way of a depression."

Parrish said he may finish college someday, but not at The U of M.  Neither the degree nor the city are priorities, he said.

"I mean, it's home, and I can't put it down, but my dreams are bigger than the violence and filth of this place," he said. "I'm doing well enough, and why work when I can make a living at play?"

Another former student, Andrew Leggett, also decided a degree wasn't for him but left for different reasons.  During his senior year in 2003, he left The University's film program to work in the movie industry in Los Angeles.

"I felt the film and TV program was not good, and it was very outdated," he said. "I felt the school was not trying to help me with a career afterwards, also. I felt that leaving the school and pursuing a job in film would be better."

Leggett continues to work in film editing and said he has no plans to return to school.

While some former U of M students were content without a degree, Randall Cooper said he wants to return to school. Cooper, a former art major at The U of M, said he dropped out during his first semester to pursue leisure activities and make more money.

"I also hated my math class," he said. "I skipped all the time because I couldn't understand my foreign teacher."

Cooper said he plans to take classes at Southwest Tennessee Community College because it will cost him less. After working construction full time for two years, Cooper said he has almost finished paying off his loans to The U of M.

"If you're not ready for college right after high school, don't go," he said. "Get a job for a semester or a year then apply.

Sometimes more students drop out to make more money during uncertain economic times, said Gary Donhardt, Director of Institutional Research at The U of M.

"Students were dropping out to earn more money," he said. "We looked into students' salaries - what they were making before and after they dropped out. On average, salaries were lower than when they were in school. Usually conventional wisdom says when jobs are hard to find students seek higher education, but we have a bunch dropping out, and they weren't making higher salaries."

The student retention to dropout ratio has remained steady over the past few years because enrollment has slightly increased, said Bill Akey, Vice Provost for Enrollment Services. The overall dropout rate has not affected the steady flow of students at The University, he said.

"So when you have those big fluctuations of populations when you're looking at the drill-down numbers, they're within 12," he said. Since registration numbers have been on the rise, the number of dropouts stays low, he said.

"Look at some at those freshmen to sophomore year retention numbers in the last five years and you can see we've been increasing the retention numbers, and also overall, and you'll see an increase in retention in recent years."

Even though dropout rate remains steady, the Retention Committee has implemented several new policies to prevent withdrawal numbers from climbing. The Early Intervention Program, created in the fall of 2007, lets the committee know which students are falling behind.

"We're trying to send warnings and alerts earlier and be proactive to decrease the amount of students going on suspension," said Thomas Nenon, Retention Committee member and Vice Provost for Assessment, Institutional Research and Reporting.

Students in danger of failing are sent emails and are encouraged to complete a tutorial to get back on track, he said.

"First, they're placed on academic warning," Nenon said. "In the ideal case, we're having an academic advisor contact them to withdraw so they have a 'W' instead of an 'F'. Worst case scenario, they'll be on academic warning and take the tutorial. We hope that's going to motivate them to get the help they need."