One criticism I consistently hear when talking about retention early warning systems is that they may provide value for the university but mostly don’t for the student. The university benefits by retaining the student because it gets more tuition. But, the argument goes, the student may have all kinds of valid reasons for dropping out of a course or a program. Furthermore, retention and learning have no necessary relationship, they argue. You can stay in school and still not get anything of value out of it. The (usually implicit) conclusion from these arguments is that retention systems are nothing more Big Brother tools for squeezing more money out of hapless students.
There’s something a little odd about this argument even on the face of it. No early warning system is forcing students to stay in school. The students must somehow be complicit in any impact on retention. Even so, I have never been one to dismiss it out-of-hand. However, after spending a half day in an EDUCAUSE seminar by John Campbell and Kim Arnold about Purdue’s early warning system, I can say with great confidence that the critics are missing the boat—at least with respect to Purdue’s approach, and probably in general.