The purpose of our department's student advisory board is to generate ideas for student success and to facilitate direct communication between the Chair of the Department of Teacher Education and Certification and the students. Each campus within the UM System and each college at Missouri S&T is required to generate ideas of how to increase retention rates and improve graduation rates, focusing on "areas of concern, pedagogical issues, technical problems, unsound business practices, policies and procedures that are detrimental to improving retention and graduation rates."