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In November 2023, the University of North Georgia's (Õý°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û) Office for Student Retention & Success was featured in a Campus ESP article for its work to improve the interactions of Õý°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û with parents and families of students and how it corresponds to student retention.

Õý°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û has used the Campus ESP site for just over a year to share information with parents and loved ones as part of the Õý°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û Family Network. There are nearly 60,000 users from Õý°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û families on the platform.

"I appreciate that this opens a new door to engage with students' parents and families in a way that is meaningful and accessible to them while being an efficient and user-friendly platform for Õý°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û faculty and staff to use," Meredith Higgins, associate director of Student Retention & Success, said. "It's clear that students and parents are more connected now than they were a generation ago with the advancements of social media and cell sphones. They're inseparable and constantly communicating."

The research, based on 6,772 students, showed that frequency of parent communication correlated with 21% higher student retention.

Their work also investigated the benefits to first-generation students and found that families of first-generation students engaged at even higher levels, with an average open rate of 72% and an average click rate of 11%.

"We didn't have to reinvent the wheel with our family communication strategy, which helped with getting our campus partners on board as well," Higgins said. "We haven’t had to re-create our existing communications plans, rather, we’ve merely tweaked our existing messages for a family audience and encouraged dialogue with their student about the respective information."