Ensuring students reach graduation is a shared responsibility at the University of Washington. The Retention Task Force convenes senior campus leaders to foster collective action to improve retention, persistence, and graduation among undergraduate students. The task force works in three key areas that inform decision making and resource allocation – data gathering and analysis, student interventions, and the reduction of systemic barriers.
Student Support Resources
If you need support as a student, connect with Student Success.
In 2014, the UW president tasked a Graduation and Retention Taskforce to develop recommendations for improving student success. Based on these recommendations the Manager for Student Success position was created and the Graduation and Retention Taskforce, with the help of this position, has since dedicated itself to systematically addressing the recommendations.
In 2018, the UW joined the national American Talent Initiative consortium that aims to increase enrollment and graduation rates for low-middle income students at top universities (those with six-year 70% graduation rates or better) by 2050. President Cauce serves as a member on the ATI steering committee and the UW is one of the original 30 member universities. The UW’s ATI goal is to graduate an additional 125 low to middle income students per cohort by 2025.
Graduation and Retention Rates Taskforce committee chair Denzil Suite and ATI executive sponsor Rickey Hall recognized the synergy between these two efforts. They merged and the two now serve as co-chairs of the ATI/Retention Taskforce committee – commonly referred to by the acronym RTF or retention taskforce.
More recently, the UW has also joined the APLU, Powered by Publics initiative, and NASPA’s First Forward Initiative. Respectively, these two initiatives commit the UW to increasing total degree production and degree attainment by first-generation students.
Sean Ferris, as Manager of Student Success, and Marisa Nickle, Senior Director for Strategy & Academic Initiatives in the Provost Office, work collaboratively to support broad retention, persistence and graduation efforts at the UW and successful participation in the ATI, Powered by Publics, and First Forward national initiatives.
Ricky Hall, Co-Chair
Vice President, Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
University Diversity Officer
https://www.washington.edu/diversity/cdo/
Denzil Suite, Co-Chair
Vice President, Student Life
https://dsl.uw.edu/about/leadership/
Anne Althauser
Institutional Analyst, Office of Planning and Budgeting
https://www.washington.edu/opb/about-opb/institutional-data-analysis/
Sean Ferris
Manager of Student Success, Student Life
https://www.washington.edu/studentlife/studentsuccess/
Helen Garrett
University Registrar, Office of the University Registrar
https://registrar.washington.edu/about/
Erin Guthrie
Assistant Vice Provost, Office of Planning and Budgeting
https://www.washington.edu/opb/about-opb/institutional-data-analysis/
Jason Johnson
Senior Associate Dean and Associate Vice Provost, Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Affiliate Assistant Professor, College of Education
https://www.washington.edu/uaa/about/uaa-leadership/executive-and-deans-office-staff/
Michaelann Jundt
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Academic Affairs
https://www.washington.edu/uaa/about/uaa-leadership/executive-and-deans-office-staff/
Megan Kennedy
Director, UW Resilience Lab
https://wellbeing.uw.edu/staff/megan-kennedy/
Chris Laws
Senior Lecturer, Department of Astronomy
Vice Chair, Faculty Senate
https://depts.washington.edu/astron/profile/laws-chris/
Kay Lewis
Assistance Vice Provost for Enrollment
Executive Director, Financial Aid and Scholarships
https://doem.washington.edu/doem-leadership/
Tom Lewis
Director, Academic Experience Design & Delivery
https://www.washington.edu/uwit/divisions/as/aca/
Felipe Martinez
Executive Director, CIRCLE
Lecturer, College of Education
https://www.washington.edu/circle/our-leadership/
Kevin Mihata
Associate Dean for Educational Programs, College of Arts and Sciences
https://c21.washington.edu/people/staff/kevin-mihata
Marisa Nickle
Senior Director, Strategy & Academic Programs, Academic & Student Affairs
https://www.washington.edu/strategicplanning/
Dan Ratner
Associate Professor, Bioengineering
Assistant Dean, Academic Affairs, College of Engineering
https://www.engr.washington.edu/about/officedean
Phil Reid
Vice Provost, Academic & Student Affairs
Professor, Department of Chemistry
https://depts.washington.edu/chem/people/faculty/preid.html
Ed Taylor
Vice Provost and Dean, Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Professor, College of Education
https://www.washington.edu/uaa/about/uaa-leadership/
Kristian Wiles
Interim Associate Vice President, Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
https://www.washington.edu/omad/about-omad/leadership-team
The University of Washington is affiliated with the following national student success efforts.
American Talent Initiative
https://americantalentinitiative.org/
Our goal is to graduate an additional 125 low to middle income students per cohort by 2025.
APLU Powered by Publics
https://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/center-for-public-university-transformation/powered-by-publics/
Our goals is to increase total degree production by 5% by 2025.
NASPA First-Gen Forward
https://firstgen.naspa.org/first-forward
Improve institutional understanding of and support for the various student populations that are first-generation.
Emergency Aid Lab
https://reospartners.com/projects/emergency-aid-lab/
UW Seattle was part of an innovation cohort that utilized iterative design to develop unique approaches to providing emergency aid support to college students on multiple campuses. Lessons learned through the process we compiled into a Road Map to support the development of emergency aid programs on campuses across the country.