This thesis sought to determine the relationship of a series of traumatic events occurring in Fall 2001, specifically the events on September 11th and a local tornado, as measured by the Impact of Events Scale - Revised (Weiss & Marmar, 1997), with the retention and involvement of first-year students from the University of Maryland class entering in Fall 2001 who resided in the Denton residence hall community. This study measured differences in the two key variables - retention and involvement - between the class entering in Fall 2000 as compared to the class entering in Fall 2001. Data for this study was collected from the University's Beginning Student Survey, and from a survey administered to a random sample of students who resided in the Denton community in Fall 2001.