SPRING 2026
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INSIDE THE WORK OF THE P
The results are professional staff members who don’ t just respond to retention challenges— we anticipate them, because we’ re reading the same students through multiple lenses at once.
spilling into students’ sleep, their focus, and their sense of whether they belong here at all. When the sense of whether they belong here at all. When the Current Issues Group connected those patterns across Housing and Residence Life, Student Accountability and Academic Integrity, and our Well-Being and Belonging pillar, it enabled a coordinated response: facilitated conversations, coaching on healthy dialogue, and concrete skills for navigating shared living. That’ s upstream work: intervening before conflict becomes a reason to leave.
As the year progressed, global events began shaping campus climate in ways that required an equally coordinated response. When protests broke out in Iran, and then escalated into war, it wasn’ t just a headline. Students were losing contact with family members abroad, and anxiety was rising visibly in our offices. Because the Current Issues Group was already in conversation, the Dean of Students team was able to move quickly, coordinating outreach and care messaging before students reached a crisis point. When Renée Good— an ODU alumna— was fatally shot in Minneapolis and protests spread across the region, the loss reverberated here in ways that went beyond the national story. Staff reached out directly to students from the Twin
Cities:“ you may be impacted by what happened in your home state, and we want you to know we’ re here.” These are the moments when proactive, connected outreach is the difference between a student who feels held by this institution and one who quietly disengages.
This is what the Current Issues Group is designed to do. Through a recent structural refresh, the group now operates with standing reports from offices across the division, creating a regular rhythm of data sharing and cross-office analysis. When one department sees a spike, the group asks: what does that mean for everyone else? When an intervention is deployed, the group tracks whether it’ s moving students toward support. The results are professional staff members who don’ t just respond to retention challenges— we anticipate them, because we’ re reading the same students through multiple lenses at once. Every early conversation, every coordinated outreach, every well-timed referral is retention work. And it only happens because the people closest to students are in the room together, paying attention.
To get in touch with the Current Issues Group, contact Victoria Ansah( vansah @ odu. edu).