Texas Tech AVID to Implement New Retention System

The enrollment growth experienced by Texas Tech during the last several years has produced larger and more diverse incoming freshmen classes.

The university-wide effort to ensure the academic success and retention of these first-year students will receive financial support for the next two years as a result of a $60,000 post-secondary grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to implement the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) system to assist university retention efforts.

Coupled with support from Juan Munoz, vice provost and vice president of the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement, key faculty, unit directors, coordinators, graduate students and tutors will form an AVID team. This collaboration will expand the support systems in place that ensure academic success and retention for first-year students.

“Through institutional academic engagement, the grant will boost Texas Tech’s ability to serve incoming first-year students who have been in the academic middle and help them succeed utilizing AVID strategies,” Munoz said. “By challenging first-year misnomers like fear, apathy, being ill-prepared, not communicating with professors and lack of confidence to meet university expectations, the Texas Tech AVID team will support students who are underprepared for college.”

AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. The AVID program levels the playing field for minority, rural, low-income and first-generation students.