by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
Hiring students to work at UNM might help them graduate sooner.
"We know that working off campus correlates negatively with graduation rates," Provost Reed Dasenbrock said. "There's a strong push in here to increase the amount of employment opportunities on
campus."
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Dasenbrock started a committee in June to identify the factors affecting graduation rates at UNM. The six-year graduation rate for entering freshmen in fall 2000 is
43.3 percent.
He released the Graduation Task Force's report Jan. 25.
The report gives eight strategies to improve graduation and retention rates.
Dasenbrock said there are more than 80 recommendations in the report, which will be reviewed by faculty, staff and students before any action is taken.
"It's important to understand we're not going to be acting on certainly the most complicated recommendations right away," he said. "Over the next two months, we're going to have a rich campus conversation about it."
The report identifies student engagement in on-campus activities as being a major factor in
graduation rates.
Because so many students have to work to support themselves, it makes sense to give them money and get them involved on campus at the same time, Dasenbrock said.
"What I would like to do is to make it part of our legislative priority next year to increase the amount of state aid for work-study," he said. "I'm hoping that we can have a very wide-range conversation about what kinds of student employment would be most beneficial for students themselves."
As of October 2005, there are 3,900 students employed at main campus, according to the UNM Fact Book.
Dasenbrock said the ideal would be to create more jobs on campus that align with students' majors.
Student Alicia Arguelles works in the biology department doing genetic research. Arguelles said she likes working on campus because it is convenient and will look good on her rÇsumÇ.
"Since you're working in an environment with a bunch of people who are going for their degrees, it helps you focus on your studies," she said. "Stuff that's in your field definitely helps more than something completely different."
Arguelles said it's better to work on campus with other students than anywhere else.
"You have to deal with the stress of having to travel to that job," she said. "It's a lot harder because you have a totally different group of people whose priorities are a lot different than people in school."
Arguelles said her coworkers are studying the same subject as her, so they are also study
partners.
Student Miguel Montoya said he has been going to UNM off and on for eight years, trying to juggle work and school. Montoya said he has never wanted to work on campus, but it would have helped him in school.
"Once I'm done with class, I just want to get out of here," he said. "When I was 18, 19, 20, I wasn't involved in anything, and that probably would have made me graduate sooner."
Dasenbrock said it won't be easy to increase the graduation rate.
"We know that there's not a silver bullet," he said. "There's not a single magic potion that will enable students to graduate."
