A small group of students find life at U.Va. to be less than bright and gay.
While University Spokesperson Carol Wood said the University's retention rate for first-year students is 97 percent -- meaning most students enjoy life at the University, or at least tolerate it well enough that inertia compels them to stay -- a few do decide to transfer away each year.
Choosing to Leave
Except when a student withdraws partway through a semester, administrators do not conduct formal exit interviews or surveys of students who leave the University. This means that the reasons why students decide to transfer away from the University remain a mystery.
"We often don't have a conversation with them," said Shamim Sisson, senior associate dean of students.
Nor do students who transfer to other institutions have specialized services here at the University to help them pursue this course of action, administrators said.
Yet while there is no formal assistance for students transferring away, such students may be getting advice from a variety of sources.
"It's not uncommon for them to have a conversation with their association dean or someone in their department about the academic implications," Sisson said.
Others also get advice from their advisors, Wood said.
Dishonorable Discharge
Not all students who decide to leave do so by choice. Under the University's single sanction Honor code, students convicted of an Honor offense cannot remain enrolled at the University. Many decide to pursue their academic careers elsewhere.
When trying to transfer, these students often have the help of Pat Lampkin, vice president of student affairs, provided they fess up to their honor code violations.
"I won't work with them unless they admit what has occurred," Lampkin said.
One of the services Lampkin provides for Honor convicts is to write letters explaining the University's single sanction system to admissions officials at other school, who may be wary of accepting a student who was kicked out of the University.
Lampkin said the results of such efforts are mixed.
"Some school will automatically say, 'no,'" she said. "It really varies."
Yet Honor Chair Carey Mingerey said some students who left because of Honor charges have been accepted at other institutions with reputations relatively equivalent to the University.
"Generally speaking, [Lampkin] has been fairly successful," Mingerey said.
He said there are two rationales for helping students who are leaving the University because of Honor charges. First, other schools do not practice the single sanction, meaning the students would not have been asked to leave those schools for their offense.
Secondly, Mingerey said that just because students commit Honor offenses "that doesn't necessarily brand them a liar, cheater or stealer for life."
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