Noodle’s chief product officer Alan Mlynek argues that student retention failures often stem less from staffing gaps and more from data intelligence problems—particularly when institutions rely on fragmented systems that don’t provide a real-time, 360-degree student view. Mlynek describes how multiple tool deployments across admissions, learning management, finance, and early alerts can create operational friction and reactive decision-making. The piece points to national attrition benchmarks, including National Student Clearinghouse Research Center findings that roughly one in four first-time students doesn’t reach their second year, with sharp drop-offs in the first 24 months. For university leaders, the practical takeaway is that student success investments increasingly focus on data unification, actionable analytics, and workflow redesign—so interventions happen during the window where students are most likely to fall through gaps.