On Wednesday, Jan. 27, the FUSA Senate held its first bi-weekly meeting of the Spring 2016 semester. At the meeting, several resolutions were brought to the attention of the Senate for discussion and approval.
One resolution that provoked plenty of discourse among the Senate was a resolution regarding the retention rate, or the percentage of freshman undergraduate students that remain at Fairfield for the next year.
Currently, Fairfield has a freshman retention rate of 87.8 percent, according to U.S. News and World Report. Despite this, several members of the felt that Fairfield should continue to try and increase this freshman retention rate.
One issue discussed at the forum that many felt attributed to a lower retention rate is the lack of school spirit on campus. However, members of the Senate noted how the lack of school spirit on campus not only refers to few students attending sporting events on campus, but rather few students attending events on campus at all.
For example, the Senate brought up Glee Club Concerts, which they argued were some of the most spirited events held on campus. Getting more students to attend these sorts of events at Fairfield, many members of the Senate felt, would help to increase the retention rate at the university.
The Senate concluded that they would further discuss this issue in their respective committees and would look for new ways to promote such events on campus more effectively to the student body.
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