‘Behind the Blue’: A deep dive into UK’s weekly student retention meetings
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 28, 2025) – University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto often talks about the university’s overarching mission to advance the state of Kentucky. A key part of that mission is educating more and more students to help expand the workforce across Kentucky.
Recent enrollment figures reflect this mission with record enrollment, as well as retention and graduation rates.
A team from the University of Kentucky recently earned the National Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Excellence Award.
The presenting team — made up Kirsten Turner, vice president for Student Success; Todd Brann, chief analytics officer; Molly Reynolds, associate vice president for student excellence; and Anne Marie Bickel, student analytics team lead with UK Institutional Research, Analytics & Decision Support — won the “Gold in 2025 Assessment, Persistence, Data Analytics and related category” for their Weekly Retention Meetings.
In this episode of “Behind the Blue,” two of those leaders, Molly Reynolds and Anne Marie Bickel, are taking a deeper dive into this unique strategy to explore how it works and why it’s helping University of Kentucky students succeed.
“Behind the Blue” is available via a variety of podcast providers, including iTunes and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
“Behind the Blue” is a joint production of the University of Kentucky and UK HealthCare. Transcripts for this or other episodes of “Behind the Blue” can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover how the University of Kentucky is advancing our Commonwealth, click here.
At the University of Kentucky, students are at the center of all that we do. From the moment you become a Wildcat through graduation and beyond, the Office for Student Success is committed to supporting you. Comprised of five areas and 25 units, together, they have one vision — to help students live a life of meaning. Student Success works through an equitable, holistic and inclusive lens to design and deliver unparalleled services and support a diverse community of learners in achieving their wildest ambitions. In the Office for Student Success this is what we do — this is who we are. You can explore resources available to you here. If you have additional questions, you can reach a Student Success team member by calling the helpline 859-218-YouK (9685).