It’s going to be a lot harder to become a University of Windsor dropout, starting this fall.

In response to an 18 per cent dropout rate of students during the first year of their undergrad, the University has created a new mentorship program to be instituted this fall.

The program will pair upper-year undergraduate students with first-years to help them deal with the many factors that contribute to a decision to drop out.

“Only 12 per cent of students that dropped out said they dropped out for academic reasons,” Clayton Smith, Windsor’s vice-provost students and registrar, explained.

Other reasons students dropped out included financial difficulties, uncertainties about program choices and social or psychological stressors, according to Smith.

“It’s part of a complex algorithm [of factors],” he added.

The Student Development Centre at Western strives to help students in first year with many of these factors, according to Brent Scott, assessment administrator at SDC.

“Individual counselling is a big area for students that are struggling with personal issues,” Scott explained, adding anxiety was a common issue especially among first-years dealing with the transition from high school to university.

The new mentorship program at Windsor aims to squelch these factors before they overwhelm the student, according to Smith.

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