The Academic Concerns system is open with new features, including clearer distinctions between milder and more serious concerns and a quick shortcut for submitters to update prior concerns for the same student.
Academic Concerns can be accessed through the Apps.Ithaca.edu page.
Milder concerns now generate specific suggestions for strategies and links to campus resources to help with one of four common concerns: missed classes, missing work, low grades and disengagement. The submitter can see the exact message that will be sent to a student. These concerns conclude automatically since resources and an invitation to meet with a professional success coach have been shared, and the student is not required to respond.
More substantial concerns require the student to connect with a member of their dean's office. These concerns remain open until the student has connected with assistance. They are referred to the Center for Student Success if the student does not respond to their dean's office outreach.
The messaging from peer leaders to all first years in the Ithaca Seminars is that getting an academic concern means a professor or staff member cares about them, and they are not in trouble, but that responding is not optional. As one upper class student put it, "You will be helped. So you might as well accept help sooner than later."