Administrators at both state-funded and tuition-driven private institutions are now adhering to a bottom-line approach to education. In many cases, budget-minded administrators refuse to move forward on any educational initiative until this question is addressed: "What are you doing to encourage retention?" It is becoming clear that directors and teachers of composition must either implicitly or explicitly deal with the retention issue if their programs are to survive. The general curriculum of the first-year composition course and the pedagogical principles in that course already address the retention problem in many ways. Several studies have shown that both the degree of student contact with faculty and the degree of peer involvement correlate with the rate of retention. Composition courses encourage student contact with faculty through conferences, good student-teacher ratios, and through the redefinition of the role of the teacher as one who facilitates and advises. Composition courses also take the lead in peer group activities through peer editing, peer evaluation, small group discussion and collaborative writing. Instructors and directors may want to infuse into the composition course particular assignments that are relevant to retention, for example, a group paper concentrating on the transition from high school to college. (TB)