From At-Risk to On Track: Lessons in Student Retention From Adelphi University

What does student success look like beyond graduation rates? AcOps recently sat down with Dr. Diann Cameron-Kelly, Associate Provost for Student Success at Adelphi University, to learn more about what her decades of experience have taught her about catching students before they slip through the cracks.

"Who is at risk?" she says. For Dr. Cameron-Kelly, that question drives everything from the watchlist she builds each September and January, to the individualized academic plans she creates with students who are struggling to find a path forward.

Building a Watchlist That Catches At-Risk Students Early

Each September and January, before the semester begins, Dr. Cameron-Kelly pulls a list. Every student below a 2.0 GPA lands on it, and every one of them gets a letter. Not a warning, but an invitation. "I hear that you're not thriving in your coursework," the letter reads. "This is an opportunity for you to get back on track. And I'm here to help you do that." At Adelphi, this process goes through an advising and degree planning tool that alerts Dr. Cameron-Kelly the moment a new student is added to her report. She also reviews the list three times a semester, keeping the window for intervention open by the time a student walks into her office.

The barriers she uncovers in those conversations rarely look the same. A student working a full-time job while enrolled full-time. A two-hour commute each way that leaves no time for office hours or campus life. A student caring for an elderly parent at home. None of those show up in a GPA. "It could be an assortment of things," she says. "It could also be transportation. Because for some students, they are not able to afford room and board. So they commute. And sometimes, we're talking a 2-hour commute. So, that doesn't give you enough time to stay after classes, enjoy campus activities. You're basically coming to campus to go to class and then go back home."

From there, the path forward starts with an academic plan that is, in her words, tangible and reasonable. One that helps a student reach graduation in four to six years instead of eight. That distinction matters because a plan that exists only on paper and cannot fit into a student's life is merely an academic exercise. Dr. Cameron-Kelly strives for a plan that a student can actually hold onto. "Every conversation is individualized," she says. "Because every student is an individual. I would say there are not any two conversations I've had that are similar. Because students bring so much to the table."

One Policy Shift, One Major Impact on Student Retention

Retention data can tell you how many students came back. However, it takes a closer read to understand why some did not. Four years ago, Adelphi took an in-depth look at its numbers, finding a policy that was quietly working against the students it was meant to serve.

The policy in question tied scholarship eligibility to a 3.0 GPA threshold. Students who fell below it lost their funding, often at a moment when they were already struggling academically and financially. Losing that funding affects a student's sense of belonging, their ability to plan ahead, and in many cases their decision to stay enrolled altogether. When Dr. Cameron-Kelly and her colleagues examined what was driving departures, this connection surfaced. The fix was straightforward: decouple scholarship retention from GPA thresholds and watch what happens. "It was probably one of the better decisions that we ever made," she says. Retention improved almost immediately after the change.

The lesson for academic operations professionals is not that GPA requirements are inherently wrong. It is that policies built around metrics alone can create unintended consequences that are difficult to spot at the individual level. The only way to find them is to look closer, ask harder questions, and be willing to act on what the data reveals.

How Adelphi's Holistic Dismissal Process Keeps the Door Open

At most institutions, academic dismissal is an endpoint. At Adelphi, it is the beginning of a different kind of conversation. Students who fall below a 2.0 GPA for two consecutive semesters are dismissed, but what follows is not a closed door. It is an exit plan designed to give students a realistic path back.

That plan typically involves transferring to another institution, completing coursework, and in some cases building a GPA in courses relevant to their major. Students who do that work can apply for re-admittance, and according to Dr. Cameron-Kelly, nearly all of them are welcomed back. "I have yet to find a student that was denied readmittance," she says. Most return within a year, the minimum required waiting period.

What makes this approach distinct is the set of questions it starts with. "You have policies. But the question is, are they holistic policies? Were the needs of the student looked at carefully, so that nothing is lost?" For academic operations professionals, it is a reminder that how an institution handles a student at their lowest point says as much about how they welcome them when they initially enter the institution.

Bringing Faculty Into the Conversation to Change Student Outcomes

When Dr. Cameron-Kelly approaches a faculty member about a struggling student, she does not go in with a verdict. She goes in with a question. "If you go to a professor and say, hey, you're not doing what's in the best interest of students, they get defensive," she says. Instead, she leads with a specific student situation and a genuine question: what are your suggestions? That shift, from critique to collaboration, changes the entire dynamic. Faculty who might otherwise feel challenged become invested in finding a solution. And because they see students in the learning environment in ways administrators do not, what they bring to that conversation is often irreplaceable.

Faculty are first-hand witnesses to when a concept clicks, and when it does not. "There's a moment when a faculty member says something, and you'll see it in the student's eyes, where it's, oh, wow, that's what you're talking about," Dr. Cameron-Kelly says. "It's an aha moment. And faculty get to see the aha moments on their faces." That proximity gives faculty a point of data that no system can generate.

"I really believe that faculty members offer nuance and anecdotes to student success that you don't really see much," Dr. Cameron-Kelly adds. "At the end of the day, that's data, too."

What Higher Education Needs to Add to the Student Success Picture

The traditional student success picture tends to start and end with graduation and retention rates. For Dr. Cameron-Kelly, it starts somewhere different. "I don't know if it's a question of what's missing," she says. "I would say it’s what needs to be added.” For academic affairs professionals, that reframe is worth carrying into conversations about metrics, policy, and how institutions define student success.