UNC system to help students ?nish degrees

The UNC system aims to raise the number of university graduates in the state — by reaching out to former students who have some college credit, but no degree.

The system’s goal of raising the degree attainment rate to 37 percent by 2025 — a top initiative in the system’s five-year strategic plan — includes a proposal to create graduation programs for students who did not complete a college degree.

North Carolina is home to nearly 1.5 million residents who have some college credit but no degree.

The UNC system has up to 12,000 students who were previously enrolled at a state university but stopped out. These students were still in good academic and financial standing when they left and had completed at least 90 credit hours.

The system is creating a market research survey for these “part-way” students that will be sent to them by the end of the spring semester.

“We want to know what kind of support system we need to put in place to best serve these prospective students,” said Alisa Chapman, vice president for academic and university programs for the UNC system.

The system plans to have the results of the survey by June.

In addition to conducting market research, the UNC system is considering the advice of other universities that have successfully launched graduation projects, Chapman said.

The University of New Mexico was the first in the country to establish a graduation project. UNM targets former students who stopped out in good academic and financial standing and had a 2.0 GPA with at least 98 credit hours completed.

Since its founding in 1997, the UNM graduation project has successfully graduated 2,373 students.

Vanessa Smith, program specialist for the UNM program, said the project helps any student who meets the program’s requirements — from the partier who is ready to refocus on his or her career, to the mom who is now returning with her kids.

“The graduation project is the middle man,” she said. “We get them registered, we get them back in and get them the financial aid they might need.”

The only school in North Carolina that has a graduation program is UNC-Charlotte.

Melissa LaMarche, an academic adviser for the 49er Finish Program, said UNC-C’s program was modeled directly after UNM’s.

The students at UNC-C stop out for a variety of reasons, including health problems, family crises and job opportunities, she said.

LaMarche said UNC-C wants these students to know they can come back whenever they want to finish a degree.

“They have a lot invested in the university, and we have a lot invested in them,” she said.

Smith said the effort to bring stopped out students back to school benefits both the local community and the state by encouraging a more highly educated work force.

These nontraditional students, she said, also serve as mentors for younger students at the university.

LaMarche said stopped out students often return having to juggle kids or a full-time job on top of school.

“But when they come back, they are excellent students.”

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.