Involvement matters: The impact of involvement in student clubs and organization on student retention and persistence at urban community colleges

Urban community colleges educate many high-risk students who have hope of educational advancement and career enhancement; however, urban community colleges have low retention and persistence rates. Student participation in campus clubs and organizations has been shown to be a contributing factor in both student retention and persistence at other institutions of higher education. Understanding how student club and organizational involvement affects retention and persistence at urban community colleges will assist practitioners and student involvement leadership in their development of student clubs and organizations that include components representative of student success. The results of this study will also advance the body of literature on student engagement. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student club and organizational involvement and student retention and persistence at two urban community college campuses located in North Texas. More specifically, the study examined how the dependent variables of retention and persistence at urban community colleges are impacted by the following independent variables: the frequency of student involvement in student clubs and organizations, student perceived importance of student club and organization involvement, student satisfaction of involvement in student clubs and organizations, and hours spent in participation in clubs and organizations. This study addressed the role of student involvement as it relates to retention and persistence at urban community colleges. This study had a sample size of 564 students from two urban community college campuses within the same community college district in the Metroplex region of Texas. Secondary data from student responses on the 2014 Community College Survey for Student Engagement (CCSSE) and institutional data received from the urban community college district was used to conduct this study. The data collected was analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square for independence and multinomial logistic regression analysis. The data collected was used to address the five research questions that helped guide this study. The first four research questions were analyzed using the Pearson Chi Square independence test and sought to determine if there was a statistically significant relationship between the independent variables of frequency of use, student satisfaction, student importance, and hours spent and the dependent variables of retention and persistence. A statistically significant relationship was not found between any of the independent variables of frequency of use, student satisfaction, student importance, and hours spent and the dependent variables of retention and persistence. The fifth research question sought to determine if the independent variables of frequency of use, satisfaction, importance, and hours spent could best predict the dependent variables of retention and persistence. The findings of the multinomial regression analysis indicated that none of the independent variables frequency of use, satisfaction, and importance were able to predict the dependent variables of retention and persistence. All of the independent variables were statistically insignificant. The findings of this study have implications and recommendations for community college administrators and student affairs practitioners in promoting student success for urban community college students; urban community college student affairs practitioners must find a system with which track involvement hours; urban community college administrators must make sure to connect student satisfaction in and perceived importance of student clubs and organizations to other factors that may increase student retention and persistence. Urban community college student affairs practitioners need to reevaluate the purpose of student clubs and organizations and make sure that the active student clubs and organizations align with the goals the urban community college is striving to attain. Finally, further research is needed to explore the relationship between student clubs and organizations and student retention and persistence at the urban community college. This study should be replicated at a non-residential community college that has differing characteristics than the two college campuses in this study. In addition, this study should be repeated to include the different types of student clubs and organizations that students are able to join. Additionally, this study should be reproduced with students in non-credit bearing courses. Finally, this study should be extended to see how student demographic data affects the results.