Innovation in Higher Education

Many university administrators throughout the country are apprehensive about the attrition rates on their campuses. These attrition rates range from 10% to 80%; furthermore, a high percentage of the students who leave do so during their first year of college. Two-year community colleges experience more student attrition than four-year colleges because of the students who are served by these institutions. As administrators deal with attrition, they must also deal with simultaneous multiple improvements and an overly full improvement agenda. Consequently, they soon realize that facilitating organizational change can be an arduous task. This study explored organizational change and the processes involved when initiating, implementing, and institutionalizing change in retention programs and policies at three Alabama Two-Year Community Colleges. Further, the study looked at the new initiatives that these colleges had implemented. This work sheds some light on how to create innovation and organizational change in higher education institutions and how to better retain students.