Retention Initiatives
Early Academic Alert
Early Academic Alert is an initiative to identify students who are not meeting academic expectations early in the quarter so we can provide support to help them stay on track. Faculty and Academic Advisors play an important role in identifying the students and providing support along with the Academic Success Coach Team. The goal of this initiative is to improve student academic success, persistence and retention.
CWU will continue this important campus-wide initiative aimed at increasing student retention as this goal aligns closely with our shared commitment to fostering student success.
Winter 2026 Updates:
Early Academic Alerts can be submitted through Canvas! Submit an Early Academic Alert for any student in your course(s) between weeks 3 - 5, that is between Jan 19 - Feb 6. This will enable us to provide timely support and interventions to help students stay on track.
Research on early academic alerts show that the most effective strategies are comprehensive in nature, communicating with students when they might need academic supports AND when they're demonstrating growth or improvements.
Students and advisors will receive a copy of the alerts submitted.
- Medium Alert: Student may experience serious academic consequences if concern is unresolved. A medium alert should be used when there is still a reasonable opportunity for the student to recover with timely intervention
- High Alert: High alerts are reserved for circumstances where all reasonable efforts to engage and assist the student have been exhausted, and there is a clear need to connect the student with broader institutional support. A high alert should be used sparingly and only after other outreach and support efforts have been attempted without success.
- Wellington High Five: Send a "Wellington High Five" to students using the same "Early Academic Alert" system when you see students exhibiting positive behaviors (showing up to class regularly and prepared, contributing to course discussions, asking thoughtful questions, participating in office hours, improving their grade, etc.,).
Course Syllabus Statement:
We recommend faculty add a statement in the course syllabus regarding the "Early Academic Alert initiative" for students. A sample is provided below:
We Care About Student Success!
This course is participating in an Early Academic Alert initiative that connects CWU students with campus resources to support their success. Throughout the quarter, you may be contacted by your instructor, or you may receive an Early Academic Alert about your attendance or academic performance in the course. CWU's Academic Success Coaching team may reach out to you using your CWU student email or phone to see how to help you resolve any alerts. If you receive an Early Academic Alert, I encourage you to reach out to me or visit my office hours to learn about how to improve your performance in this class. You may also want to make an appointment with your academic advisor in Inspire. Please be mindful to check your email regularly and follow the suggested action to help you build success in this class and beyond.
You may also receive a “Wellington High Five” in recognition of outstanding effort, growth, or improved academic performance! If you have any questions about Early Academic Alerts, you may contact the Office of Academic Success and Advising at AcademicSuccess@cwu.edu.
For Non-Academic Concerns:
If your concern is non-academic, please use the Care & Support Form to submit behavioral issues, academic dishonesty, student conduct code violations, or concerns about students’ health and wellbeing.
Fall 2025 Wrapped!
Thank you helping prioritize total student success at CWU!
Frequently Asked Questions
-
How do I submit an Alert or a "Wellington High Five"?
Check this Quick Guide to learn how to submit an alert or Wellington High Five through Canvas and how to review the status of the alert after submitting it.
-
Do students receive a copy of my alert?
Beginning winter 2026, a copy of the Early Alert will be sent to both the student and the advisor for follow-up. Faculty should be aware that information sent in advising alerts is a part of the student record.
-
When should I submit an alert?
Submitting alerts early between week 3 - 5, will enable us to provide timely support and interventions to help these students stay on track. For Winter 2026, submitting alerts between Jan 19 - Feb 6 is recommended.
If the faculty or staff member has been unsuccessful in resolving an issue, they may refer students for one or more of the reasons listed below:
- Frequent absences
- Unresponsiveness to faculty outreach
- Notably poor academic performance
- Low engagement in the classroom
- ESL challenges
- Missing or incomplete work
- Other measures of academic performance
-
What happens after I submit an alert?
Once the alert is submitted by faculty/staff, it is assigned to an Academic Advisor who will follow up with the student on the concerns listed in the alert. For 100 & 200-level courses Academic Success Coach team performs the outreach to students along with the academic advisors.
The alert is "resolved/closed" by the advisor with a "resolution comment" with details about the follow-up. Faculty will receive an email when an alert they submitted is "resolved/closed" which will include comment from the advisor or the academic success coach who did the outreach for the alert. -
Important Dates for Winter 2026
- Add/Drop or Schedule Change Period - Jan 6 to Jan 12th
- Submit an early alert within this timeline - Jan 19 to Feb 6th
- Deadline for Uncontested Withdrawal - Feb 20th
- Deadline for Hardship Withdrawal - Mar 13th
-
What does it mean when the alert is "resolved"?
Currently Inspire has only one way to close the alert and it is to mark is as "Resolved". Hence the advisor or other staff who did the outreach for the alert must click the "Resolve" button in order to make updates to the alert with details of the outreach and the outcome of it, which is then communicated back to the faculty/staff who submitted the alert.
"Resolved" does NOT always mean the student contact was made and the issue is solved. Inspire is working on bringing clarity and provide another option called "closed" or "closed no response" to close an alert.
Faculty may choose to submit another alert if the concerns still exist or if there is a new concern for the student.
-
Can I submit alerts in bulk?
No, alerts cannot be posted in bulk on Inspire system. It must be done individually per student.
-
How to review or see updates on the alert that I submitted?
Scroll down and then scroll right to see the “resolution” status. The “tick mark” in blue circle means the alert is “Resolved or Closed”. Click on the row or student name to see the resolution comment from advisor/academic success coach. Check the Quick Guide for Faculty for detailed instructions.
-
Sample Course Syllabus Statment
We recommend faculty add a statement in the course syllabus regarding the "Early Academic Alert initiative" for students. A sample is provided below:
We Care About Student Success!
This course is participating in an Early Academic Alert initiative that connects CWU students with campus resources to support their success. Throughout the quarter, you may be contacted by your instructor, or you may receive an Early Academic Alert about your attendance or academic performance in the course. CWU's Academic Success Coaching team may reach out to you using your CWU student email or phone to see how to help you resolve any alerts. If you receive an Early Academic Alert, I encourage you to reach out to me or visit my office hours to learn about how to improve your performance in this class. You may also want to make an appointment with your academic advisor in Inspire. Please be mindful to check your email regularly and follow the suggested action to help you build success in this class and beyond.
You may also receive a “Wellington High Five” in recognition of outstanding effort, growth, or improved academic performance! If you have any questions about Early Academic Alerts, you may contact the Office of Academic Success and Advising at AcademicSuccess@cwu.edu.
Academic Success Coaching
The role of an Academic Success Coach is to aid students by providing useful resources and developing strategies for personal and academic success. Currently, we have a team of Graduate students in this role to assist students who receive an alert in 100 and 200 level course (mostly freshman students). They conduct outreach to provide resources, mentoring and support. They also do outreach to students in "probation" standing. Aligning with the CWU’s unifying value of “Student Success”, this team engages with students, create a sense of belonging, assist students with their academic success to help improve retention and the graduation success rate for CWU students.
Learn more about the Academic Success Coach Team
-
Our Goal
Our goal is to aid students in developing strategies for personal and academic success. To accomplish this, we communicate with students through a variety of platforms and provide information, resources, mentoring and support. We maintain student confidentiality and ensure that each student is treated with respect.
-
What do Academic Success Coach do?
This team is assisting with the "Retention Initiative" from the Provost Office beginning Fall 2024. Our team of Academic Success Coach (ASC) reaches out to students who receives an Academic Alert from Faculty for 100 and 200 level courses, that is mostly freshman students. The timeline to resolve alerts on Inspire is 2-weeks from date of submission of the alert. This team also reaches out to students in Academic Probation standing and provide support and resources to students to aid with their goals and academic success which will lead them to graduating successfully from CWU.
-
Meet the Team Members
Meet our graduate student Academic Success Coach
Isabel Williams, Lead Academic Success Coach
Joscelyn Lilleskare
Sandra Gomez
Reyhaneh Bagherian Shamir
Juli Tyburski
Tabitha Dittus
Banu Jayamani, Supervisor, Office of Academic Success & Advising
Peer Mentoring
Peer mentoring is located in James E. Brooks Library in the Learning Commons. The peer mentoring program strives to help CWU students create connections, enhance belonging, and identify resources and strategies for success in college. Peer mentors are fellow students who are passionate about seeing other students succeed and thrive and are always willing to support the transition and journey of other students at Central.
CWU News
Middle school students develop professional skills at Amazing Shake event
February 25, 2026 by Marketing and Communications
$4 million federal grant aimed at helping with school psychologist shortage
February 25, 2026 by Marketing and Communications