When we voice our immediate concerns about these students and the debt they’ll incur, only to leave Columbia with a poor record–it falls on deaf ears.

The system is set up to collect this data over a semester or academic year, long after it could help an actual struggling student.

There is a gulf between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs that is just too wide. You’re missing an opportunity to hear the truth, in detail. Soliciting more frequent data from the actual departments and classrooms would yield the kind of information you need to diagnose and fix retention problems.

You might also save some admitted (but woefully under-prepared) students a few thousand dollars and some heartbreak.