Give freshman feedback on their progress in the class.

The administration feels that student retention can be improved by ensuring that every freshman knows what their status is in each class at midterm. The student should have this information in time to withdraw from the course without a failure or to pull the grade up to an acceptable level. The progress “grade” is satisfactory or unsatisfactory so it is not confused with actual grade point averages. Using only “S” and “U” grades eases the load on the faculty.

Provide this information to advisors

The student’s advisor should also have this information to advise the student about how to improve class performance.

Everything online NO PAPER.

Every phase of this process must be online and there should be little or no paper generated.

Distribute the workload.

In the design of the system and procedures every effort is made to distribute the workload to the person who has the information and is in the best position to handle it.

Maintain History Information.

The system was implemented in the Fall of 1995 on a three year trial, so information is being maintained to evaluate the system. The point is not to see if the system works, it does. But, does it help the students and improve student retention?