Prior to 2007, the number of students regaining good academic standing after being put on academic probation was an average of 34 percent, but in 2011 that number increased to 86 percent.

Also, in 2007, Eastern received a grant to create the Student Success Center.

Cindy Boyer, director of the Student Success Center, went over the achievements the center has accomplished in its five years on campus during the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday in the conference room of Booth Library.

The center offers help to students on academic probation, students reinstated to the university after being academically dismissed and members of Building Outreach and Opportunity for Students in Transition, a program intended for students from under-enrolled and historically at-risk populations, Boyer said.

Students put on academic probation for the first time are required to enroll in EIU 2919: Strategies for Academic Success, an empowerment course created to increase responsibility, motivation, time-management skills and effective study habits, according to Boyer.

Boyer provided student-given commentary on the course crediting it with giving him new opportunities, stability and direction.

“I can assure you this is not the type of statement you would get on day one, day two or day three of that course,” Boyer said. “Students are embarrassed and angry many times that they are in the class, but it seems to become a very positive impact upon them.”

Jeff Cross, associate vice president for academic affairs, acted as project director for the five-year, $1.85 million Title-III institutional development grant that allowed for the establishment of the Student Success Center.

The grant provided funds for the addition to Ninth Street Hall of about 5,000 square feet, with the university supplementing an additional 1,000 square feet of space.

In previous Master Plan documents, according to Cross, Ninth Street Hall was slated to be torn down. Only one floor of the three-story building was handicap accessible. With the addition of the Student Success Center, however, an elevator was installed providing access to all three floors.

“In the current institutional Master Plan, there sits Ninth Street Hall and it’s not a dotted line anymore to be removed,” Cross said. 

One of the newest programs integrated into the Student Success Center is the Early Alert System, a program introduced last semester that allows instructors to track students with low attendance, missing assignments or both. 

Karla Sanders, director of the Center for Academic Support and Assessment and co-chair of the Committee on Retention Efforts, presented the Fall 2011 Early Alert System statistics.

When an instructor submits an alert, the student indicated and the CORE office automatically receive an email informing them about the issue.

74 percent of the students received just one alert. 

22 percent received two or three, the remaining 5 percent getting four or more. 

By the end of the semester, however, just 19 students received an A in the alerted course. Sixty-six received Bs, 93 garnered Cs, with 62 Ds and 128 Fs. 

“A lot of times we have students saying, okay, I’ll talk to the professor and they do it and close it out,” Sanders said. “Sometimes they say, I’ll make an appointment with the Student Success Center, they do and they don’t show up.”

“There’s only so much enforcement we can do, but we feel like if we’re offering the services, if the students want to take advantage of them, great,” Sanders said. “After a year we’ll have more data built up that we can share with the students and then they’ll keep mushrooming.”

The Faculty Senate will next meet March 20, with Police Chief Adam Due of the University Police Dept. and Dan Nadler, vice president for students affairs, expected to give a report on campus security.

 Kimberly Foster can be reached at 581-2812 or kafoster2@eiu.edu.