From retention to student success

A (re)New(ed) Beginning: From Retention to Student Success

As we enter 2026, we are at a moment of important transitions. Hannah Arendt reminds us that “every end in history necessarily contains a new beginning; this beginning is the promise, the only ‘message’ which the end can ever produce.” In that spirit, the transition of our Early Student Success Quality Enhancement Plan’s (QEP) concentrated focus on retention is not an endpoint but an opening, a chance to reimagine what student success could means at JMU right now. 

Beyond Retention: A Broader Vision

For years across American higher education and still to this day, retention has served as the dominant proxy for success. It was measurable, comparable, and institutionally legible. Retention represented a metric that signaled progress. Yet, as our own research and practice have revealed, success cannot be confined to credit accumulation or graduation rates alone. These indicators matter, but they tell only part of the story. Student success is multidimensional, deeply personal, and inherently relational. It encompasses belonging, agency, identity development, and readiness for life beyond the classroom. It is about students defining and pursuing their own aspirations, experiencing transformation, and exercising freedom in shaping their learning journeys. The QEP working group worked to build this into the early student success system from the beginning based on a transformative moment when the literature review sub-group asked a question like, How do we build something that is not being done to students, but with students? 

Cultural Reorientation: From Metrics to Meaning

This shift requires more than expanding dashboards or layering new KPIs onto old frameworks. It calls for a cultural reorientation—one that centers student perspectives and co-creation over compliance, and that resists the gravitational pull of technocratic control or surveillance disguised as care. Success must be understood through multiple perspectives that honor both quantitative indicators and qualitative narratives, weaving together data and lived experience to form a more holistic picture. It demands governance rooted in access and transparency, ensuring that our measures serve students rather than students serving our measures. 

Spring 2026: Turning Vision into Action

This spring offers tangible opportunities to bring this vision to life. JMU is already rich with initiatives designed to deepen student agency and belonging—from expanded success coaching and workshops to collaborative forums that invite students into the conversation about what success means for them. These efforts are not ancillary; they are rooted in our beginning. As we launch integrated coaching pathways, refine holistic metrics, and pilot programs that center student voice, we affirm that success is not a static outcome but a dynamic, shared journey. Spring 2026 is our season to act boldly, to align practice with purpose, and to ensure that every student’s story is not only counted but honored. In doing so, we make good on Arendt’s promise: that each new beginning is a testament to freedom—and to the transformative power of education.

Stay tuned for more in this reflective series: 

• Defining Student Success
• Navigating Student Success
• Measuring Student Success
• Transforming Institutions for Student Success.