When Should An Instructor/Advisor Submit an Academic Alert?
Course instructors and academic advisors are expected to submit academic alerts to Student Success when they have concerns about a student in one of their courses, or about one of their advisees. Student Success partners with the student’s advisor(s) to respond appropriately.
Please send an Academic Alert if you observe any of the following behaviors:
- Two or more class absences within the space of two or three weeks.
- Failure to attend class for ill-defined reasons (e.g., “I didn’t feel well so stayed in bed”), suggesting that a student is having other difficulties.
- Poor performance (C- or below) on tests, essays, assignments, or in class activities.
- Failure to submit assignments.
- Sudden negative changes in the quality of a student’s work.
- Disengagement from the course or other behaviors, suggesting that the student may be in need of assistance.
Please note that you can submit more than one Academic Alert for the same student. If you have already submitted an Academic Alert for a student in your course and then have further reason for concern (for example, failure of a second major examination or continued class absences), please submit a second Academic Alert, or a third, or a fourth! The information in Academic Alerts is an important tool in our efforts to retain students and support student success at Allegheny.
Please send an Academic Alert by September 30 in the Fall semester for any student who is consistently completing less than C level work.
Another important deadline is the deadline for a student to request a Student-Initiated Withdrawal (“X”) from a course. Please speak directly with students who are unlikely to pass your course prior to this deadline and then follow up with an Academic Alert. Please allow enough time for the student to have additional conversations with their advisor(s) and/or the Student Success professional staff.
How Should Advisors Respond to Academic Alerts?
Academic Alerts are an indication that there is cause for concern about a student’s academic performance. Hopefully, the scale and nature of that concern will be conveyed by the Academic Alert comments. How an advisor responds depends on the nature of the circumstances, what the advisor knows about the student, and what the instructor suggests as a recourse. Having said that, there are several guidelines that we ask advisors to please observe.
- First-year students probably need more direct attention than upper-class students (please see below).
- Students who are on Academic Warning, Academic Probation, or Poor Academic Standing probably need more direct attention than students who are in Good Academic Standing with the College.
- Students who appear to not be communicating with their instructor(s) or Student Success probably need more direct attention than those who are communicating, but in those cases, e-mail is unlikely to be effective.
- If a student is receiving multiple Academic Alerts, either in multiple classes, or in the same class, they probably need more direct attention than a student who receives a single Academic Alert.
- Please make sure to copy the student’s Student Success professional staff on your e-mail messages, so that everyone is having the same conversation.
- If you see the student regularly, in class or in some other setting, a personal interaction is often more effective than an e-mail. However, those personal conversations still need to be briefly documented so that everyone is having the same conversation.
In every case, these are suggestions, not strict rules. Again, how an advisor responds depends on the nature of the circumstances, what the advisor knows about the student, and what the instructor suggests as a recourse.
Academic Alert Response for New Students
FS instructors/advisors are in a unique position to talk with first year and new transfer students when the student receives a first Academic Alert. To bring advisors more actively into the Academic Alert advising process and to provide a more personal response to this first Academic Alert, the following change in Academic Alert protocol (new for Fall 2017) is outlined below.
- In the Fall semester when first years and transfers receive their first Academic Alert the FS instructor/advisor should have the initial conversation with the student. This might include a discussion of what an Academic Alert is, what it means and appropriate steps a student could take (such as go talk with your instructor, go to drop-in tutoring).
- When Student Success receives those first Fall Academic Alerts, the Associate Dean for Student Success will assign a professional staff contact. This person will NOT reach out to the student unless the advisor requests follow up by Student Success.
- If it seems that time management, motivation, reading, or possible learning issues are the issue, the advisor will e-mail the Associate Dean for Student Success to request follow up.
- Documentation of the advisor’s conversation with the student will go into the student’s advising folder.
- Additional Academic Alerts for first years and transfers (even if it is a first Academic Alert if in a different subject) will be addressed by a Student Success staff member previously assigned to the student. The staff member will address the concerns in the most appropriate manner which may include an e-mail to student and copying the student’s advisor on the communication.
- If a student receives their first Academic Alert in the Spring Semester, the Student Success staff member will address the concerns in the most appropriate manner which may include an e-mail to the student and copying the advisor on the communication.
All other Academic Alerts will be responded to by the assigned Student Success professional staff member who will copy the advisor. We ask that advisors copy Student Success on e-mails if they reach out first.
There is one major EXCEPTION to the rule that an advisor responds to the first Fall Academic Alert for a first-year or transfer student. If the student fails to show up to the first meeting of the FS 101 class, the Monday before the semester begins, instructors should submit an Academic Alert and Student Success will follow up.
Academic Alerts That Suggest a Student “X” a class
- When any student receives an Academic Alert recommending the student take a Student-Initiated Withdrawal (“X”) in the class, the advisor should follow up since the advisor will need to fill out the Advisor portion of the X form and is responsible for monitoring a student’s academic progress toward graduation.
- Before approving a Student-Initiated Withdrawal, the advisor should consider the following:
- Is the student a senior?
- check the Degree Audit to see if the student needs this particular course or the credits to graduate
- Is the student on any type of academic warning or probation? Check the terms of their warning. Will dropping this course affect this?
- Will the X drop a student below 12 credits (full-time status)?
- athletic eligibility is based on full-time status
- financial aid is NOT recalculated mid-semester
- Please make sure you copy the appropriate Student Success staff member on your message to the student, so that everyone is in the loop.
End-of-Semester Academic Alerts
End-of-semester Academic Alerts can be vitally important. You should submit an Academic Alert for each student who earns the following grades in one of your courses: C-, D+, D, F, or NC.
You should also submit an Academic Alert for every grade of Incomplete (IN) and for every instance in which you granted a “Withdrawal for Extenuating Circumstances” (W). For grades of IN, you should report the grade to which the record will default if the student fails to complete the work. For grades of IN and W, you should briefly report the circumstances that lead you to award that grade.
For those students who are facing Academic Suspension or Dismissal, the Academic Alert record is included in the materials reviewed by the Academic Standards and Awards Committee. It is vitally important, therefore, that Academic Alerts for students be submitted NO LATER than one week after the final grading deadline for the semester.
Record Keeping and Student Privacy
If a student changes advisors for any reason, the new advisor will not have access to prior Academic Alerts. Please print out the Academic Alert and place it, with records of your follow-up conversations/ e-mails, in the student’s advising file.
Academic Alerts are part of a student’s educational record and are subject to FERPA. The contents of Academic Alerts are confidential and should not be shared outside the circle of school officials with a legitimate educational interest to know the information. Students do not receive a copy of the instructor’s comments and you should not share the verbatim comments with them. It is acceptable to paraphrase, but instructors may include notes for professional staff that are not for students. HOWEVER, please be aware that a student has the right to inspect their educational record so long as they follow published guidelines, so please write in the knowledge that a student COULD one day read what you write. Instructor comments and observations should be kept to academic and associated matters.
What Academic Alerts cannot do
The Academic Alert is a useful tool, but it has limitations. Academic Alerts go to Student Success staff (and coaches where applicable) only. They do not go directly to the Dean of Students, Residence Life, the Counseling and Personal Development Center, the Registrar, Career Education, Public Safety, etc. Student Success staff reroute matters of concern during business hours as appropriate. In the case of emergency safety and concern situations, faculty should call Public Safety (814-332-3357)
Professional staff working with the Student Success to help students receiving Academic Alerts:
Erin O’Day-Frye, Associate Dean for Student Success, eoday@allegheny.edu
John Mangine, Senior Assistant Dean for Disability Services, jmangine@allegheny.edu
Carly Masiroff, Assistant Dean Academic Support, Student Success, cmasiroff@allegheny.edu
Lenée McCandless, Assistant Dean for International Student Services, lmccandless@allegheny.edu
Jennifer Franz, Learning Specialist/TESOL instructor, jfranz@allegheny.edu
Jennifer McDonough, Life Coach and Academic Support, jmcdonough@allegheny.edu
Ian Binnington, Dean for Student Success, ibinning@allegheny.edu
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