A new analysis argues that institutions know retention matters but still aren’t fixing the underlying structural problem: retention work is fragmented across advising, financial aid, and student success systems that don’t “talk” to each other. The piece cites widely reported attrition stakes, including $16 billion in annual attrition costs and 40% of undergraduates leaving without a degree. The article says institutions often have retention-relevant data but can’t convert it into coordinated action because warning signals are trapped in separate tools. As a result, a student often surfaces as “at risk” only after multiple signals have already appeared elsewhere, triggering delayed intervention. It recommends moving from department-level retention efforts toward retention as a shared, coordinated institutional function with infrastructure that holds across the full student journey—emphasizing graduation outcomes rather than first-year retention alone.