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Starting college is both exciting and overwhelming, and educators recognize how crucial this transition is for first-year students' success and persistence. Many first-year students face challenges adjusting to a new environment, keeping up with academic expectations, managing their time, and dealing with homesickness. In the Writing Program (which includes ENGL 101 and ENGL 115), we see these struggles firsthand through students’ writing and participation, which gives us a unique chance to better understand their needs and create meaningful interventions.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve tracked students’ challenges and successes in first-year writing courses and have made several changes to better support them. Since Fall 2023, I’ve been reaching out to students struggling at midterm, based on their instructors’ feedback. As the Writing Program Director, I offer advice and guidance, sometimes even discussing whether dropping the course is the best option. These check-ins show students that many people at Xavier care about their success and want to help. In Fall 2023, we identified 80 students (~15%) at risk, with attendance and mental health struggles being the most common issues.
To address this, I worked with the Dean’s Office and Student Success to establish a clear attendance policy across all first-year writing courses, setting a cap on absences. This helped slightly—by the next semester, about 13% of students were struggling at midterm—and we knew more needed to be done.
In Summer 2024, I worked with an undergraduate research assistant to explore studies on student success in first-year writing and its connection to retention. We found that students who do well in first-year writing are more likely to stay in college, and the biggest predictor of success is attendance. We also looked at why students miss class, including mental health struggles and the “downward spiral” that happens when they fall behind. Based on this research, we made several changes for the Fall 2024 semester:
- Added information on attendance and student success to The Write Path, the Writing Program’s annual student reader
- Enforced the attendance policy
- Encouraged instructors to join the Persistence Project
- Continued reaching out to struggling students at midterm
In addition, we ran five experimental course sections with extra support for students, focusing on attendance, growth mindset, and mental health. Students in these sections completed a Canvas module on these topics, created success plans, and discussed their goals with peers. Instructors closely tracked attendance, checked in with students immediately if they missed class, and found creative ways to incentivize attendance. Throughout the semester, instructors also kept notes on their approaches and results.
These efforts have shown great promise—last semester, only about 3% of students in first-year writing courses were struggling at midterm, which is significant improvement. While we can’t claim causality, it’s a big step in the right direction. Encouraged by these results, we plan to implement these strategies in all first-year writing sections starting in Fall 2025.
By approaching student success with curiosity and a willingness to understand the “why” behind their struggles, we’ve been able to make meaningful changes. While a clear attendance policy is important, pairing it with support for mental health and a sense of belonging helps students not only meet expectations but also thrive. We look forward to continuing these efforts and seeing even more positive results in the future.
Renea Frey
Associate Professor/Writing Program Director
English
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