On July 1, 2015, Dr. Carlos Vargas took over as the 18th president of Southeast Missouri State University, following Dr. Kenneth W. Dobbins. Immediately, Vargas began to get to know the students and started familiarizing himself with the campus.

The biggest concern with Vargas during his first full year as the inaugurated president has been the retention rate at Southeast. This semester, 11,536 students enrolled at Southeast, an increase of 1.1 percent from the fall semester in 2015. The retention rate this year was the highest in recent history, standing at 74.3 percent.

"We are coming together -- faculty, staff and students -- to help every student achieve his or her goal of earning a college degree," said Dr. Debbie Below, vice president for enrollment management and student success and dean of students at Southeast.

Yet, Vargas continues to want to make the rate even higher.

"I want to make sure we improve our retention," Vargas said.

Vargas said he's visiting with students, asking them questions and letting them know he wants to continue to have success and continue to increase and improve the retention rate.

"Compared to other universities that are similar to us, we are not in a bad position," Vargas said. "That number is at a higher number compared to others."

For Vargas, this isn't a long-term or a short-term goal. This will be something that continues throughout his tenure at Southeast. He doesn't want to see progress stalling out and the retention rates to stay the same or decrease. However, he does know that a 100 percent retention rate is impossible due to factors outside of the university's control, but he wants to help students by finding out how he can make each department better to increase the retention rate. Vargas believes 80 percent is a reasonable number to obtain at Southeast.

"I think it's important to make it sustainable," Vargas said. "What we do is a result of continuing efforts -- not just one time and forgetting about it and have to come back."

Vargas believes the retention rate isn't just for students and the success they are having but for the entire university itself. If Southeast gets to the 80 percent retention rate, Vargas said it ensures the staff and university are doing a number of things right and improving departments.

"I think that we should push ourselves to be at the 80 percent level," Vargas said.

One major aspect Vargas wants to see continue to get better is the friendliness on campus by staff and faculty members. Vargas said being even more friendly and kind will show students the university cares about them, and Vargas assures that he does as well.