The Retention of Educational Opportunity Program Students at Sonoma State University

Overview: As attrition remains high across the country and student persistence in\ud institutions of higher learning continues to be an issue, the need to study student retention\ud is critical. The Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) serves historically low-income,\ud first-generation college students who qualify. About a sixth of the EOP students are first\ud time freshman at Sonoma State University (SSU). The specific objectives of the program\ud are to increase both one and two year retention rates, while the program's overall goal is\ud to increase the number of students graduating with their Bachelor's degree. The efforts of\ud such programs often have a major impact on the student and the university, and by\ud extension the socio-economic wellbeing of society.\ud Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this project is to design and implement a\ud questionnaire to collect and identify self-reported student responses about the\ud effectiveness of the EOP program and the factors that contribute to students' retention at\ud SSU.\ud Findings: Understanding such indicators and gathering student-reported data can assist in\ud maintaining current programs, improving their design, and replicating best practices.\ud Results and recommendations in this paper can also be utilized to generate and apply for\ud future funding opportunities, thus better meeting the needs of traditionally\ud underrepresented EOP students who attend SSU.\ud Conclusion: This paper examines student retention and student development, and\ud connects the findings with concepts of social justice and the psychological dimensions of\ud change