SUNO's LAMPS lights path to academic success

Student retention is a sizeable problem on most campuses, but two years after Hurricane Katrina, Southern University, New Orleans faces a new dynamic to the age-old dilemma of keeping students after recruiting them. This fall, however, SUNO officials found a way to shine LAMPS on the problem of keeping freshmen engaged and enrolled.

SUNO's Vice President for Academic Affairs Wesley Bishop and Donna Grant, director of enrollment management services, have spearheaded the development of Leadership and Mentoring Program for Students (LAMPS). The project pairs faculty and staff mentors with freshmen students so they can keep track of academic progress and provide assistance when needed.

"We're trying to put our whole freshman class in a cocoon and teach and monitor them, and try to get them through," Bishop said. "If students succeed during their first two semesters, the likelihood increases that they will graduate."

Similar efforts are cropping up across the Crescent City as these programs do more than tell students what's where on campus. The people who run them watch out for freshmen who might need coaching or remedial courses to make up for lack of preparation.

"We're trying to remediate that," Bishop said. "If we can get them used to success in the first semester, we hope to replicate that in following semesters."

The project got its official launch during a kickoff luncheon in late September sponsored by Warren 'Chip' Forstall, member of the Southern University System Board of Supervisors. World renowned motivational speaker Les Brown delivered the keynote address. Brown, an internationally-recognized speaker and CEO of Les Brown Enterprises, Inc., is the author of the highly-acclaimed and books, "Live Your Dreams" and "It's Not Over Until You Win."