The reports providing instructor feedback are being issued as the result of a new policy implemented by Nicolas Goodman, vice provost for undergraduate education, at the urging of the Faculty Senate.

Goodman noted that the initiative is more in line with practices at small colleges and universities, as opposed to those of research universities.

UB is taking the step, he added, because studies conducted at other institutions that issue such reports have shown that early intervention by advisors in cases where a student is identified as performing poorly can reduce the rate of failure and improve the rate of student retention.

To facilitate faculty submission of information, Goodman said UB is among the first-if not the first-institution of higher education to collect the data via a Web site, http://wings.buffalo.edu/web/midsemester.

Faculty members who teach courses that include any first-semester undergraduates-both freshmen and transfer students-have until Monday to submit the information.

The faculty member must indicate whether the student is making satisfactory or unsatisfactory progress in the course, Goodman said. Although the grading symbols "S" and "U" are used, a mid-semester progress report should not be considered to be a grade for any particular fraction of the course, he stressed.

The policy is the direct result of a resolution approved by the Faculty Senate last spring designed to identify students who are at risk of failing so that advisors can intervene to make sure that the students are aware of their situation and can take appropriate action.

The Monday deadline for filing the progress reports allows time for students to withdraw, if they wish, from a course in which they may be performing unsatisfactorily.

Goodman lauded the work of Thomas Schroeder, associate professor of learning and instruction and former chair of the Faculty Senate Grading Committee, who shepherded the proposal through the committee and to its final approval by the Faculty Senate.

Schroeder "deserves a great deal of credit for getting this thing going," Goodman said.

Under the new UB policy, faculty members will receive a list of names of students in their courses for whom a mid-semester progress report is required. Via the Web site-faculty members only need to use their UNIX username and password to log in-instructors can file a progress report either by filling in an online bubble sheet or by uploading an appropriate file.

Once all of the reports are received, staff in the Academic Advisement Center will compile the data and send a letter and email to those students they have determined to be most at risk, Goodman said. Center staff then will attempt to make personal contact with each student, either in person or through a telephone call, he said. That contact could be made with the assistance of the Student Services Centers in the individual schools and other professional advisement centers, such as those serving student-athletes and students in the Educational Opportunity Program and the University Honors Programs, he added.

The monitoring of students' progress is an essential ingredient in academic success and a responsibility that must be shared by both instructors and students, Goodman stressed. The new mid-semester progress reports will provide a means for enhancing the communication between instructors and students, he noted.