Lyman, BarbaraBumpas, Roni Kelso2024-03-292024-03-291995-05Bumpas, R.K. (1995). A formative evaluation of Southwest Texas State University's African-American retention/mentoring initiative (Unpublished thesis). Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.https://hdl.handle.net/10877/18351Colleges and universities are faced with high rates of attrition among the minority population. African-American students suffer a higher rate of attrition than that of the white college population. Faced with this dilemma, institutions have begun to implement retention programs aimed at these students. In the Spring of 1994, Southwest Texas State University funded a mentoring initiative developed in cooperation with the Office of Admissions. The initiative targeted African-American freshmen. This research study compared African-American freshman students who participated in Southwest Texas State University's African-American Freshman Leadership Conference for the Fall 1994 semester to those African-American freshman students who did not. This study assisted in evaluating the effectiveness of the initiative by comparing retention rates, academic achievement measured by GPA, and student-school satisfaction of participants and eligible non-participants. The findings of the study supports previous research that proactive interventions, such as the leadership conference and mentoring program, aimed at first-time, minority college students are effective in reducing attrition. Students who participated in the leadership conference and mentoring program were more likely to be retained and had a higher level of satisfaction with their school environment. Participation did not impact students' semester GPAs significantly. Additional findings revealed that more females than males participated in the program for reasons unknown. However, there was no relationship between gender and retention. More participants lived on campus rather than off campus, and more students living on campus were retained. A higher percentage of males lived off campus and fewer males were retained.Text81 pages1 file (.pdf)enAfrican American college studentscollege attendancecollege dropoutsmentoringThesis