“Out the Door in 4” equips students with the resources they need to complete college.
Dr. Marybeth Gasman, a professor in higher education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, asserts that “any institution that has that population … is going to have a more difficult time with graduation rates and retention,” in part, because “the main predictor in terms of graduation and retention is income.”
Even still, many HBCUs are rising to the challenge. Xavier University of Louisiana, specifically, recently finished a promising four-year test period of its “Out the Door in 4” program, which guides students to graduation in four to five years.
The First Year
Out the Door in 4 started with 24 student volunteers: two were men and a third had to take remedial math courses. Dr. Pamela Franco and Pearl Algere-Lonian, co-directors of the program, recruited freshmen, and each student signed a contract, committing themselves to the goals of the program.
Dr. Loren Blanchard, senior vice president for academic affairs at Xavier, says the program is centered around an “idea about a commitment made on the front end, at the very beginning, and stating that we are committing together … . It’s not only the terms of the fundamentals of this program that work; it’s also the psychology of it,” he says.
Xavier is not alone in recognizing the importance of freshman year.
