The University of Akron said Wednesday it will let its $840,000 contract with Trust Navigator expire because the fledgling student coaching program didn’t help its fall-to-spring student retention rate.
“We appreciate the efforts of the Trust Navigator success coaches this past year,” UA officials said in an email sent Wednesday to the university community.
The deal with the Cleveland-area start-up company last year drew widespread faculty criticism.
Many questioned how the university could spend so much money on an outside, unproven student coaching company while slashing $40 million from the university budget, including 54 jobs at the school’s Division of Student Success, which is tasked with student retention.
University officials countered that the Trust Navigator coaches would have different duties than those who lost their jobs.
With the contract ending, UA officials said they plan to work with academic leadership and student success teams and the Faculty Senate to determine how best to improve student success.
Check back with Ohio.com throughout the day and read Thursday’s Akron Beacon Journal for updates to this story.