Eastern was awarded a five-year $1.8 million institutional development grant for a Student Success Center designed to help academic at-risk students get back on track.

The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education after the first submittal of the grant proposal, which is rare, said Jeff Cross, associate vice president for academic affairs and project director.

“It tells us we had a very strong proposal with a high likelihood of success,” he said. “Our proposal was fully funded and we got everything we asked for.” The three readers of the grant scored it with two 100s and one 97, he said.

While some specifics of the center have yet to be decided, its goal will be to assist academic at-risk students reach academic success.

The Student Success Center will be based from the current Academic Center in Ninth Street Hall and will collaborate with other student support services like the Academic Services for Student Athletes.

“The Academic Center does on a small scale with a limited number of students some of what we’re proposing to do with the Student Success Center,” Cross said.

In order to expand, part of the grant will be used to add about 5,000-square-feet to Ninth Street Hall.

Also, besides the physical space, the grant will build a virtual space for student interaction and programs at the center.

“The grant proposes to join all these operations and coordinate their functions in a virtual space,” Cross said.

The functions will include a faculty development program to help instructors identify warning signs of at-risk student to help prevent them from being placed on academic warning. Also, those students on academic warning will have to take a mandatory, no-credit intervention course to hopefully help them off the warning list.

“That’s the population that the student success center will focus on,” Cross said.

On average, 700 to 900 students are placed on academic warning at Eastern each year, meaning their cumulative GPA falls below 2.0.

“At Eastern, that’s unacceptable to us,” Cross said.

Of those 700 to 900 students, on average only 36 percent receive their degree. The goal of the grant is to nearly double that percentage to 60 percent.

Part of the grant will also go to create an endowment fund so that after the grant is awarded, the programs of the center can continue to operate.

Cross expects construction on Ninth Street Hall to begin within the academic year. Also, the no-credit mandatory course should be offered by Fall 2007.

“It will greatly elevate our ability to support students at academic-risk,” he said. “When we admit a student, we have a commitment to help them complete. We are really excited about the possibilities.”