Dear Colleagues:
It is time to celebrate!
This week we learned that our freshman to sophomore retention rate on the Kent campus reached 81.7%, an all-time record at Kent State! In addition, preliminary numbers suggest that our six-year graduation rate will increase to nearly 55%. Put on your party hats, and give yourselves a well-deserved pat on the back for this impressive improvement.
Each one of you reading this message played a key role in this success, and each one of you plays a key role in improving student success moving forward. Thank you to staff members for greeting our students with a smile, and for going out of your way to answer students' questions. Thank you to our academic advisors. You are on the frontline of student success, and I want you to know how much I appreciate your dedication to guiding students through our curriculum and supporting their engagement in learning. Thank you faculty. Thank you not only for imparting your knowledge, which you do so well, but also for making your classroom a nurturing environment that allows our students to learn and mature. An extra special thanks goes to Interim Dean Eboni Pringle and her team in Undergraduate Studies for coordinating our university-wide retention efforts.
I wish I could thank each one of you individually. I certainly am thanking each one of you publicly.
Of course, many others are involved in this success, and I also recognize them as well. Thank you to our admissions counselors for building great freshman classes. Thank you to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the great work you do with AALANA students. Thanks as well to student affairs employees for building meaningful co-curricular activities, and for working, along with our police force, to keep our students safe. Thank you to our facilities and grounds employees for making campus so attractive (when I asked my First Year Experience students why they chose Kent State, most of them mentioned the beauty of the grounds). Thanks as well to our IT folks for making sure that our students have the resources and support they need to connect to others and to the world of knowledge.
President Warren also extends her heartfelt congratulations. She thanks you for, as she often says in admiration of Kent State, meeting our students where they are, and taking them to places they have never dreamed of.
In short, congratulations!!
P.S. Please join me this Saturday at the Kent State Aviation Fair. Fun activities for all ages begin at 7am at the Kent State airport in Stow, and continue throughout the day. See you there!
Sincerely,
Todd A. Diacon, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost