EAI Faculty Resources

In partnership with the Dean of Students Office and Personalized Academic Support Services (PASS), the Early Academic Intervention initiative aims to fully recognize and empower the Cougar Care Network (CCN) as the location for academic early warning. This means that we want faculty to use CCN to refer any students who may be struggling in their courses, even if the concern is minor. Faculty can use CCN to refer students who are missing classes, not turning in assignments, or are otherwise not engaging in the course.

Faculty instructors in many high-enrollment first-year courses will be asked at certain points during the Spring 2023 term to review their course rosters and refer any students of concern through the regular CCN process. Use the Bulk Submission Template to submit several students at once and maintain a record of your referrals!

Please read the FAQ below for some quick answers. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Courtney Utsler, Early Academic Intervention Coordinator.

Criteria for Referring

Faculty should feel free to refer any student they feel would benefit from additional support or resources. In addition to the standard practice of referring students with major concerns to CCN, faculty teaching in EAI courses will be asked to submit referrals for students exhibiting minor academic concerns such as:

Attendance issues – instructor has not made contact with student for 2 weeks.
Academic challenge – any level of academic struggle should be referred (missing assignments, performance on major or minor assignments, struggling with content, etc.)
Personal challenge – submit CCN referrals as normal

Timeline

Students will be notified of their enrollment in an EAI course in Week 1 of the semester. This notification gives students a chance to understand the EAI initiative and prevents confusion related to later referrals.
Faculty will be asked to check their rosters and make any EAI referrals in Weeks 3-6 of the term.
Program Directors and Department Chairs will receive reports on the status of EAI referrals in their areas during Week 7.

What Happens When a Referral is Submitted?

Faculty member makes referral through CCN
CCN receives referral and directs to proper support
- EAI Team will receive academic related referrals based on student need: Specialized Programs, PASS and/or EAI Coordinator
Student will be contacted by EAI Team and directed to the support areas on campus that meets their individual academic needs
- EAI Team will contact student via phone upon receiving the referral, if no response is received within 3 business days, an email and/or text will be sent.
- If student is unresponsive to EAI Team outreach after multiple attempts in different communication styles, the student will receive a final message with resources, encouraging them to reach out when they can.

Referral Outcomes

Our goal is to follow up with faculty regarding the outcome of their referrals in a timely manner. Faculty can expect to receive a follow up message after two weeks from the date of referral.
Students who do make contact may be scheduled for additional meetings with counselors, tutors, and/or other campus personnel who can directly assist. The following academic support programs are some of the most useful for EAI students. Faculty are our most powerful partners in engaging students with academic support resources on our campus, so please take advantage of the below information for directing students to campus academic support resources, we have drafted language that you may choose to include on your syllabi/cougar courses about each center/program.

Academic Success Center

The Academic Success Center offers free, online, drop-in tutoring for Economics, Finance, Psychology, History and Spanish courses. Our trained peer educators (tutors) are ready to help you develop a stronger understanding of course concepts, develop and enhance your study skills, and help prepare you for quizzes/exams. This semester the ASC will also be offering a series of workshops to support First-Year students in their transition to CSUSM. Tutoring will start the third week of classes and run through the week before finals. A detailed schedule of our upcoming workshops and tutoring hours can be found on the ASC website or we also encourage students to stop by and visit our virtual Academic Success Center on Microsoft Teams. Follow us on Instagram @csusm_asc.

Questions? Email asc@csusm.edu
Website: www.csusm.edu/asc
Virtual Hours: Mon-Thurs 9am – 5pm; Fri, 9am – 2pm

Coordinator: Alexa Diaz
Email: andiaz@csusm.edu
Phone: (760) 750-4197

Supplemental Instruction (SI)

Shorter Syllabus Statement: Supplemental Instruction (SI) study sessions are offered weekly for this course. SI sessions will be offered virtually through Microsoft Teams and in-person following the modality of the course it supports. For more information about the days, times, and modality of the SI sessions for your course please talk to your SI Leader,__________ or visit the SI website.

Longer Syllabus Statement: Supplemental Instruction (SI) study sessions are offered weekly for this course. SI study sessions are led by a student who has successfully completed this course and has been trained to facilitate group study sessions that help students improve their understanding of course material, review and discuss important concepts, identify effective study strategies, and help you prepare for exams. Students, who attend SI sessions weekly, typically earn a higher final course grade than students who do not participate in SI. SI is for everyone and open to all students enrolled in this class; attend early and often to ensure you never fall behind! SI study sessions begin during the 3^rd week of the semester and are now being held virtually or in-person. For more information about the schedule and delivery of SI study sessions, please talk to your SI Leader,__________, or visit the SI website.

Questions? Email si@csusm.edu
Website: www.csusm.edu/si

Coordinator: Jennifer Figueroa
Email: jfigueroa@csusm.edu
Phone: (760) 750-8066

STEM Success Center

This is a historically challenging course that requires students to be pro-active in their learning and study strategies. To assist you, free, online, drop-in tutoring is available to all students through the STEM Success Center, available through Zoom. No appointment needed! This fall we also have in-person, drop-in tutoring for select math and chemistry courses (please see website for more info).

Our trained peer educators (tutors) will assist you in developing a deeper understanding of course concepts, problem solving, preparation for quizzes and exams, and identifying effective study strategies. In fact, students who attend early and often have demonstrated increases in their final grades. Follow us on Instagram @csusm_stemcenter.

Questions? Email stemsc@csusm.edu
Website: www.csusm.edu/stemsc

Director, Jennifer Brich
Email: jbrich@csusm.edu

Writing Center

The Writing Center offers welcoming digital and face-to-face learning environments where certified student consultants offer constructive guidance at any stage of the writing process--idea generation, argument development, sentence-polishing, and more. They start with the prompt and ask guiding questions as you work to develop compelling work. Chat, voice, and video sessions are available on Microsoft Teams by appointment; Quick Help is available on Teams on a drop-in basis; asynchronous feedback is available by request; and in-person tutoring is available by appointment. Additional services include Academic English support, webinars, and various online resources. Follow them on Instagram @wccsusm.

 Questions? Email writing@csusm.edu
Website: www.csusm.edu/writingcenter
In-Person Hours: Mon and Thurs, 10am – 1pm; Tues and Wed, 10am – 4pm; Fri 10am – 2pm
Virtual Hours: Mon-Thurs, 9am – 6pm; Fri, 9am – 2pm

Director: Evan Smith
Email: esmith@csusm.edu

FAQ for Faculty

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Who is involved with Early Academic Intervention?

Early Academic Intervention is a partnership between the Dean of Students Office, Personalized Academic Support Services, and the Office of Undergraduate Studies. In Spring 2023, we are working with faculty instructors for the following courses: GEL 101; GEO 102; GEW 100, 101A, and 101B; MATH 1, 101, 5, and 105; PHIL 110; and UNIV 180-2 and 180-3. In total, this serves 70 instructors, 180 course sections, and over 2466 students.

Get to know the EAI Team!
What is the process for referral?

Regardless of the EAI supported course you are teaching; all you need to do is visit the Cougar Care Network to submit a student referral. We will take care of routing your referral to the right support resource and we will contact the student. We will do our best to let you know how the student will be supported.
How is this different from a normal CCN referral?

From the faculty perspective, it is not any different. But we want you to refer any student presenting academic challenge, not just students dealing with significant challenges. On our side, we have made some structural changes but the process for faculty referral is the same. We are looking to identify any struggling students and connect them to support before their challenges become insurmountable.
Can I refer more than one student at a time?

Yes! Attach the Bulk Submission Template to a single CCN form to refer multiple students at once.
Should I refer the same student more than once?

If you sent us a referral for a student in previous weeks but are still concerned about their work, please do refer them again and indicate within the referral that this is a second try. Staff at the various “support nodes” of CCN are working hard to get students the help they need, but many are not responding to outreach. We’d like to know if a student’s poor performance is continuing so that we can intensify our outreach if necessary.
How much detail should I include in a referral?

One of the main goals of this initiative is to get faculty instructors in the habit of referring students even if they have “low-level” concerns, so you do not need to provide a lot of detail if this is a minor academic concern. However, any detail you do provide will help us connect the student to the right resources. If you know any specifics as to why the student is struggling, please do let us know in the referral.
Should I try to reach out to the student before making a referral?

Ideally, you can do both! Students are much more likely to respond to their instructors and usually respond positively when their instructors show concern. In our past pilots, we’ve found students are much more likely to respond to CCN’s outreach when their instructor let them know they were referred.
What changes have been made with CCN to make this initiative possible?

We have been able to use federal COVID relief funding to add staffing to the Dean of Students Office, PASS, and OUGS that allow us to respond to the increased number of referrals resulting from this initiative, including the follow-up to referring faculty. We are also working to streamline the routing process behind the scenes to keep information flowing smoothly between CCN’s “nodes” of student support.
What if I don't hear back about a referral I submitted?

If you have not received any update about the student you referred after 2 weeks from date of referral, feel free to contact Courtney Utsler or Katrina Hale.