This quarter, if you don’t show up to class and participate in class activities, it may be reported.

On Jan. 15th SFCC released a new system, Early Alert, to help identify students who may be at risk of academic difficulty.

Early Alert spawned out of the Achieving the Dream initiative, a program that SFCC put together with a grant from an organization called College Spark.

“Last year we came up with two interventions: Early Alert and Academic Advising,” said Jim Minkler, the Vice President of Learning at SFCC.

According to Minkler, a survey was done in 2011 to assess what the stu- dents thought of advisement; the advisors did not get good results, which is where the Achieving the Dream Initiative came from.

“Academic advisement is not just to help students register for classes, but to help them throughout their college career,” Minkler said. “Early alert is not only to help students quarter to quarter, but year to year.

“You won’t see the full impact of the Early Alert, and Academic Advising until next year.”

Early Alert is new, but students and faculty are already putting the system to use.

“As of January 30th, there have been 85 alerts,” said Connie Carlson, the Student Achievement Manager at SFCC.”

If faculty or a student notice someone having difficulty with their classes, it’s as simple as filling out a form and hitting the submit button.

“Early Alert is designed to help students that run up against academic difficulty” said Carlson

“Instructors and students can submit an alert if they see a student struggling.”

Students and faculty wishing to use Early Alert will find the link to the system on SFCC’s homepage, spokanefalls.edu.

“A student may receive an alert because of low attendance, inappropriate classroom behavior, low test/quiz scores, incomplete/missing assignments, poor/undeveloped study skills or time management, or even a personal issue affecting the student,” said Carlson.

“Some students may even need off campus help, including food or clothing assistance, or if they need help paying the bills to keep their

water on.” Carlson wants to urge that Early Alert is not for issues pertaining to things such as snow cancellations. “On January 7th there were 9 Alerts asking if classes were canceled on account of the snow,” Carlson said. “Early Alert is for academic difficulties that students may be having.”

Jacobe Flansaas