Several faculty, staff and administrators spent three days together to discuss how to best support our students, especially those at risk of leaving the college.  They learned about a retention alert system that the college is adopting, and brainstormed how to best use the system to identify students in need and quickly get them support. The retention alert initiative will help us provide interventions to those who need them most so that students can  manage their own academic success.

Key to making the system work is faculty involvement. Faculty are often the first to recognize when a student is at risk, making them integral to the alert system. The system will allow faculty to easily alert support service experts about a variety of risk factors. Students will quickly  receive relevant support, and faculty will receive feedback about what happened.

We expect to begin implementation in spring 2016 with a group of volunteer faculty. Sheila Hall and Angelina Hill will continue work with faculty and staff in the fall to further design the early alert system.