This paper aims to develop strategies for retaining at-risk students. At-risk students can be defined as being deficient in specific skills; having low incoming grades; having an expectation of failure; lacking familiarity with academic requirements; and having an absence of role models, among other negative characteristics. The paper suggests that retention strategies that do not involve the support of academic departments are doomed to fail. Some retention strategies include: (1) a full-time, four-days-a-week, cluster-scheduled program co-led by developmental faculty land counselor teams; (2) a peer-counseling program where carefully selected students work out a plan with probationary students of calculating the GPA required for getting off academic probation; and (3) allow students to change curriculum to a Liberal Arts program, thereby providing a safety net for students who want to "bail out of" other programs. One proposed remedy is to return academic counselors to the position of one-on-one counseling, and to remove them from classroom situations. The paper also suggests that each academic counselor have an Internet homepage, to give students greater access to assistance. This paper offers appendices which include a contract for getting off academic probation and sample liaison arrangements with academic departments involved in collaborative work on probationary students. (NB)