Graduation rates are the focus of the UL System with $99 million in its new funding doled out to campuses to help students graduate.

But retention and graduation go hand and hand - if students don't stay in college, they're not going to be any closer to graduation.

At UL, new programs are focusing on retention, including spending about $500,000 on hiring more instructors to open up more high-demand courses and training advisers who help students map their college courses.

And UL's retention rates from freshman to sophomore year are improving since 1998, the last fall with open admissions.

Since then retention has improved by about 10 percentage points, with 75 percent of fall 2006 freshmen returning this fall.

It's expected that retention rates will continue to climb as the university continues to add students admitted since full selective admissions were enacted in 2005, said Carolyn Bruder, director of UL's academic planning and faculty development.

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Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com