Campus Connection

  By UW-L student Breanna Levine A new technology-based program hopes to help students who might be struggling in college. The Eagle Alert system, rolled out earlier this semester, was created to provide students with feedback pertaining to academic or professional concerns, student potential and advising sessions. It also hopes to help retain students at UW-L and help all students graduate on time. This initiative was created by Firm Footing, a committee that addresses students who are likely to be at-risk for academic troubles and give them the resources they need to succeed. Instructors and staff who wish to use the program can go into the Eagle Alert system at any time and write feedback. Students will be alerted via email when they have new feedback to read. “We have just initiated a feedback survey for both instructors and students last week,” says Executive Committee Member of Firm Footing Betsy Morgan. “More than 1,000 students were provided feedback and more than 1,310 faculty members were involved in providing it. We are pleased with the initial participation.” However, the new system has gained some controversy. While all students are able to receive feedback, certain students are put into a “priority” group. This priority group includes first semester students, those who have a documented disability, multicultural students, students with an ACT score lower than 20 and transfer students. Also included in the priority group are any students, regardless of how many semesters they’ve been at UW-L, who have a GPA lower than 2.0, who are not in “good academic standing” and multicultural students with a GPA lower than 2.5. According to Morgan, this is to help faculty with large classes to “prioritize the students to whom they might want to check on their progress or provide feedback.” “I’d like to stress that the system was designed for all students. Instructors are encouraged to provide feedback for any student,” Morgan says. The controversy lies with multicultural students being placed in the priority feedback group. There are also rumors that those with lower socioeconomic status are also targeted. Some students saw this as the university saying that these students were more likely to have academic struggles. However, this assumption couldn’t be more wrong, says Retention Coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Student Services (OMSS) Jenna O’Brien. “We were surprised when students became upset about this program, because it has been going on for more than 20 years,” she says. O’Brien says OMSS has a program, called the Grade Progress Report (GPR), which did the exact same job that Eagle Alert does, just without the technology. “If studentsself-identified as multicultural, were new freshmen, new transfer students or getting below a 2.5 great point average, they would have a letter sent to their professors asking for feedback about the students' performance,” says O’Brien. “Once it was received, it was then shared with the student via an in-person meeting or a phone call.” This process became too much to handle, so OMSS reached out to IT to develop an online system that “gives faculty the ability to offer feedback without the mass amounts of emailing.” The result was the Eagle Alert system. “Nothing has changed,” says O’Brien. “If you are a current student who is not a freshman or transfer student and are getting above a 2.5 GPA, you will not be on the priority list for getting feedback regardless of multicultural affiliation.” As for targeting low socioeconomic status, O’Brien says it’s not even possible to track a student’s income. “Only Financial Aid has that information,” she says. “We cannot concentrate on students with low socioeconomic status, only those who have self-identified as multicultural and any other attributes that come with their background.” Eagle Alert isn’t just about negative feedback, either. “Many of the Eagle Alerts I have received about students have been positive, with faculty praising students for their hard work and others congratulating them on a great first semester,” O’Brien adds. Overall, the Eagle Alert system is not just about helping students who are most at-risk to academic and professional troubles, but for every student on campus to improve in these areas as well. “This is a national movement, often referred to as ‘early warning,’ that is aimed at improving student success by getting feedback to students early in the term,” Morgan says. Instructors who use the Eagle Alert system will only know if a student is in the priority feedback group. They will not know why that particular student has priority feedback. To learn more about the Eagle Alert system, visit sites.google.com/a/uwlax.edu/firmfootinguwl/home-1/ff-work-groups/early-alert.