According to self-determination theory, the need for relatedness, or close affective bonds with others in one's environment, constrains available motivational resources, which in turn affects performance and persistence in many settings. Few studies in educational settings have assessed instructors' pedagogical relationships with students and the extent to which students' sense of relatedness in classrooms may influence their academic engagement. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of relatedness in classrooms on first-year college persistence. A motivational model was proposed that featured relatedness as a psychological mechanism through which students' perceptions of pedagogical caring in college classrooms promoted their self-determined motivation. Other endogenous model variables included perceived competency, grades, institutional commitment, and institutional persistence. Booklets with survey measures of the five psychological variables in the model were administered to 490 first-year students enrolled in the spring of 2008 at a large southwestern university. Seven months later, data were obtained on enrollment and grades. Structural Equation Modeling was used to statistically test the model. The data fit the model well, following the addition of two theoretically-justified paths to the initial model. Ten of the twelve direct pathways in the model were statistically significant; and eighteen significant indirect pathways were identified. Of particular interest was the strong pathway observed between relatedness and pedagogical caring, and the moderately strong relation between relatedness and motivation. Furthermore, relatedness indirectly influenced persistence; specifically, a student who experienced favorable levels of pedagogical caring in classrooms felt higher levels of relatedness with classroom professors and classmates; and sense of relatedness was linked to stronger self-determined academic motivation and to stronger institutional commitment, which in turn predicted the student's return to their college for the sophomore year. Another indirect pathway observed was from pedagogical caring to persistence via perceived competency and cumulative grade point average. In conclusion, findings suggest that by demonstrating pedagogical caring in classrooms, instructors can foster the bonds that tie first-year students to their university.