After years of proclaiming poor graduation rates as the university’s “Achilles Heel,” Provost Bill Destler said last year’s freshman retention rate is a definitive sign that in three years the graduation rate will match that of other research universities.

The freshman retention rate, a key indicator in determining four- and six-year graduation rates, is 93 percent, the highest it’s ever been, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning website. However, this isn’t a huge increase from recent years, as rates have been above the 90th percentile since fall 1998.

“We’re rapidly improving,” Destler said. “We’re quite comparable with our freshman rate, but we’re not quite there yet with our six-year rate.”

Destler remains confident that in three years, the six-year rate, which is at 73 percent now, will reach 80 percent, the average for public research universities. The university still ranks in the bottom compared to its five aspirational peer institutions.

The University of California, Los Angeles ranks first in six-year graduation rates among the peer institutions at 87 percent in 2003 compared to this university at 71 percent, according to The Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that tracks student graduation rates.

Graduation rates have been increasing over the past few years as the university addressed this problem with new programs and initiatives. When Destler came to the university 32 years ago, he said the retention rates were horrible at about 65 percent. It wasn’t a concern of the university then, but since becoming provost, he made it a top priority.

Colleges across the nation are concentrating efforts on freshman retention rates to improve long-term graduation rates.

“Nationally, it’s pretty typical that students leave in the first year [rather] than in any other year,” said Bill Spann, associate vice president of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning.

The university is putting more effort into recruiting better students, who are more likely to graduate, but it isn’t putting heavy emphasis on the freshman rates, Destler said. He credits most of the improvements to the university’s new policies for quicker intervention and advising systems.

Two years ago, the university added a policy that puts students on academic probation when their GPA falls below 2.0. Students are required to meet with an academic advisor, and if they fail to raise their GPA by the end of the semester, they may be dismissed. Last semester, the university added another provision that will require advising for students who fall behind in their major or continue beyond 10 semesters or 130 credits.

Mandatory advising is a first step, but many struggling students say it’s not worth much without also improving the quality of advising.

Katie Siebert, a junior, changed her major three times before finally settling on English. Her GPA fell below a 2.0 last semester, placing her on academic probation. She had consistently struggled with her GPA since coming to the university but said her many advisors did not help her at all.

“No one really tells you what to do in a big university, and they don’t give you the help you need,” she said. Siebert has horror stories of meetings with advisors and said she left one session feeling like an idiot.

To address the quality of advising, Destler said the university is investing $300,000 into a better advising system over the next few years, including new full-time advisors and updated advising software. Beginning in the fall, all incoming freshmen will have to complete four-year plans with advisors for their colleges.

Some students have already benefited from advising efforts, though they have often come too late in the game.

Colin Han is on the seven-year plan. After getting mediocre grades his first two years here and acquiring a minor poker addiction, he withdrew from school to work full-time. He returned to the university last semester, when his grades dropped again, placing him on academic probation.

Han said he can’t blame anyone but himself and started going to the Counseling Center for advising.

“She got me to open up and trust a complete stranger,” Han said of his advisor. “To succeed in college, I think it’s more social, and we need programs like counseling.”

Destler said between more advising requirements and the increasing aptitude of incoming students, the university will effectively patch its Achilles’ Heel.

“What was once a weakness of the university will be a strength,” he said.