Peter Collier

Research and Projects

1) Project Director and Principal Investigator, "Students First: Improving First Generation Student Retention in Higher Education," a four-year intervention project, funded by the Department of Education’s FIPSE program, to improve low-income, first generation student performance and persistence  (2004-2008)

2) Project Director and Principal Investigator, "Improving First-Generation, Low-Income Student Retention in Higher Education: Examining the Persistence of Role-Mastery based Advising and Telementoring Intervention Effects," a three-year qualitative follow-up study of a cohort of students from the Students First Program to determine if positive  program effects persist beyond the students' participation year, funded by NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) (2006-2009)

3) Research design and instrument development consultant on the Lumina Foundation-funded Urban Transfer Resource Network project (Dr. Kathi Ketcheson, Principal Investigator), a multi state, multi-site study that is examining how community college and university transfer policies impact the likelihood of transfer student success at the university and Bachelor's degree completion.

4) Collaborating with University Studies faculty to integrate specific elements from the Students First project into PSU’s first year general education experience -- Freshmen Inquiry – with the goal of improving performance and persistence for all freshmen.

5) Collaborating with core commitments work group to develop and pilot a new entry class for transfer students with the goal of increasing new students’ knowledge of available PSU resources, connection to the university, and, ultimately, degree completion rates