Approximately 25% of students who attend college for the first time drop out of college within their first year. Students at UNF are similar to students at other institutions, as they face early failure in gatekeeper courses and a struggle to find their sense of belonging at an institution that is much larger than their high school. A small working group began looking into this question in spring 2018. The working group would like to invite all faculty to participate in a broader conversation, and are particularly eager to hear from those faculty who teach first year students. All interested faculty are invited to a conversation on how we can help to improve student success and retention in the first year. This is part of a Faculty Association initiative to draw upon faculty expertise to improve UNF’s Performance Funding Metrics. This conversation will focus on Metric 5, the percentage of FTIC students who are retained into the second year (fall) with a GPA above 2.0. If you would like further details or if you cannot attend but would like to share your suggestions, please contact Krista Paulsen (kpaulsen@unf.edu) or Dan Richard (drichard@unf.edu).