In lieu of sending students across campus to a counseling center or financial aid office, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock now places licensed social workers directly inside each of its campus colleges, where they serve as student support specialists and case managers.
A 2024 article in Metropolitan Universities describes the model as a decentralized, college-specific system that partners academic affairs with student affairs to deliver a holistic, integrated approach that students can access within their own academic units.
A Case Management Model
The student support specialists offer case management services that range from triaging at-risk students to coordinating on-campus and community resources. They also administer small emergency microgrants meant to bridge short-term financial gaps that might otherwise push students to withdraw from college.
The role is designed to address challenges that go far beyond academics. In the College of Business, Health, and Human Services, for example, specialist Mia Polk-Hampton is available to help with academic challenges, emotional distress, work-life balance, financial hardship, and referrals to university and community resources.
In 2021, the university highlighted student support specialist and licensed clinical social worker Gertrude Thompkins, who serves students in the STEM and Humanities and Social Sciences colleges. Thompkins said she focused on connecting students to resources that many did not know existed.
“Sometimes students aren’t aware of the Trojan Food Pantry, Counseling Services, and all of the different resources the university offers,” she said. “I try to relieve any stressors the students are having by connecting them with the resources they need.”
Heather Reed, director of student retention initiatives, said Thompkins’ addition to the retention office “has been uplifting for students who face barriers to their student success,” noting that a social worker helps them navigate campus and community resources so they can focus on their academics.
The positions are funded in part by UA Little Rock’s Student Success Endowment Fund, established in 2020 with a $25 million anonymous gift to support retention and student success initiatives permanently.
Meeting Students Where They Are
For Carrie Phillips, the university’s chief communications and marketing officer, embedding social workers in every academic college is a strategic response to the realities students face today.
Speaking in a 2025 webinar on recruiting Generation Alpha, Phillips described the model as one of UA Little Rock’s most compelling innovations.
“A business student’s needs may look very different than an engineering student’s needs,” Phillips said. “You don’t have to make that journey by yourself across campus … That faculty member is there to tell you, ‘Let me take you right down the hall.’”
By embedding social workers in college offices where students already go for advising or to see faculty, UA Little Rock reduces the stigma and logistical barriers that can keep students from seeking help with mental health, financial stress, or family crises.
Tackling Root Causes of Attrition
The case management model is grounded in growing evidence that nonacademic life barriers—not just grades or tuition bills—often drive students out of college.
A randomized controlled trial of an intensive case management program for low-income community college students found that addressing personal, financial, and logistical obstacles through coaching, referrals, and emergency financial assistance significantly increased persistence and degree completion.
Research on basic needs insecurity underscores why this approach matters. A nationally representative study has found that roughly one in five college students experience food insecurity, with even higher rates at some campuses.
The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice reported that nearly 34% of students in its 2020 survey faced food insecurity, with millions more experiencing marginal food security.
Emergency aid has also shown measurable impact. Evaluations of Lumina Foundation’s Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund emergency financial aid programs found that more than 2,400 community college and tribal college students received over $845,000 in emergency grants in their first two years, helping cover housing, transportation, child care, and utilities during crises that threatened their enrollment.
Both students and administrators reported that such aid helped students stay in school.
Early Results and Lessons
While UA Little Rock’s model is still being studied, early evaluation data from the Metropolitan Universities article show that a diverse group of students across multiple disciplines is using the college-based case management services.
The authors report that retention rates for students who receive services vary by the issues they present with, suggesting that students facing complex combinations of financial, academic, and personal stressors may need more intensive or sustained support.
The program is also integrated into campus-wide safety and care structures. Student support specialists serve on UA Little Rock’s Care Team, which brings together representatives from academic affairs, student services, and campus safety to coordinate responses when students are struggling or in distress.
Collier-Tenison and Polk-Hampton note that one of the next steps is standardizing data collection so the university can better track usage, outcomes, and which interventions are most effective, without disrupting day-to-day practice.
Even in its early stages, UA Little Rock’s approach reflects a broader shift in how colleges think about retention. Rather than treating mental health, financial insecurity, trauma, and life stress as external issues, the university has anchored social work and crisis response inside the heart of academic life—the colleges where students study, meet with professors, and plan their futures.
For students who might otherwise leave school when life unravels, the message is simple: support is not somewhere else. It is right down the hall.
