For most students at Lipscomb, Advance means making friends, winning Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and revealing secrets during intense games of fruit basket turnover. For Jim Thomas, however, Advance runs much deeper than that.
Dr. Thomas, a communications professor and an assistant to the president, started the Advance program 22 years ago with hopes of keeping incoming freshman at Lipscomb for the entirety of their college careers.
“I see myself as more of a problem solver as opposed to someone who has great creativity,” Dr. Thomas said. “I always wondered why Lipscomb students transferred to Harding and vice versa.”
After looking at the data, which had been complied after 20 years of research, Thomas soon found out that nearly 50 percent of those who start college never get their degree. Thomas then began to wonder if students were simply not as smart as they had thought upon entering college.
“Surprisingly it is the brighter students who tend to drop out and never graduate,” Thomas said. “What is making the student say, ‘I’m just not going to do this?’”
The main thing that Dr. Thomas found out was that most of the students’ decisions were made very early on in the college experience. He then concluded that if students were able to have a pleasant freshman year it was more likely they would finish college by walking the line and shaking the hand of the president instead of leaving during Spring break and never returning.
“Having started at Lipscomb as a transfer student in 1967, I came in thinking that our registration process had a real problem with it,” Thomas said. “We were putting freshman at the end of the registration period, waiting in line for four hours at a time, only to be told that the classes they wanted were full and to go to the back of the line and make out a new schedule.”
In 1988, Dr. Thomas went to the administration and proposed that the university bring in students three separate times during the summer and place students in small groups, do early registration, adjust to life socially and other creative things.
That year, though, his plan was rejected. However, after a change in the administration a year later, his plan was accepted with open arms by the new faces that then made up the university.
Since then, the program has had great success.
“What we found was, even 20 years ago, of those who attended Advance, 95 percent stayed at the university,” Thomas said. “Particularly in today’s world that is impressive because students are applying to four and five universities.”
Thomas believes that it all comes down to one word: fit.
“We thought if we could get them here, have them see the Lipscomb experience and see who we are in a real sense, it would make their decision much easier,” Thomas explained. “The word fit is a word that I used in my dissertation. Is this the right town? Is this the right school? Is this the right location? It comes down to five or six factors, and if we do that we have a really good shot of keeping a student at the school.”
Dr. Thomas said that one of the main purposes at advance is to also show them who the school is on a more personal level. That is why Advance uses students that are involved on campus to usher the new students in.
“I don’t think is a more exciting time that being an incoming freshman,” Thomas said. “I’ve been a professor since 1972 and I believe they are the most exciting group to teach, hands down.”
It’s Thomas’ goal to produce Christian Critical Thinkers that can function in society and moreover, make a difference and shape the country’s future.
“I think higher education is the solution to many if not all problems,” Thomas said.
The first Advance session is June 16th and 17th with two more in July and August. Check below for photos and videos from last year’s Advance sessions.