An Early Alert is a proactive, non-punitive outreach tool submitted by an instructor through Compass to connect students experiencing academic challenges with targeted campus support before these challenges escalate. Early Alerts (formerly called "Academic Performance Concerns" or "Section 3" notices) are submitted for course-specific concerns to alert the student, their advisor, and the Assistant Dean of the Academic Success and Writing Center that there is concern. We want to be proactive in connecting students to key people and resources when academic concerns are present.
Early Alerts are intended to help a student to get back on track in a course or make an informed and timely decision about withdrawing from the course.
All About Early Alerts
The purpose of the Early Alert process is to:
- Proactively identify students facing academic challenges and connect them with resources to ensure course success.
- Encourage students to connect with their professor and advisor to develop a plan of action.
- Educate students on relevant academic policies and deadlines.
- Triggers Interventions: Flags concerns such as struggling with coursework or missing classes, assignments, and/or exams.
- Creates Virtual Referrals: Automatically notifies relevant departments (e.g., Academic Advisor, Academic Success and Writing Center, Office of Academic Transitions) to initiate coordinated care.
- Builds a Support Record: Allows advising and student support teams to track patterns of concern across multiple courses over time.
When professors observe one or more of the following behaviors, they should submit an Early Alert through Compass. Please be sure to include the course for which the Early Alert is being submitted.
- Excessive Absences
- Missed Assignments
- Missed Exams
- Consistently Low Scores and Performance
- Low Performance
- Requesting Administrative Withdrawal
| Alert Reason | Recipient | Intervention & Follow Up |
|---|---|---|
| Academic Concern | Student; Student's Advisor | Expected Outcome: The student will work with their professor and advisor to create a plan for the course. The plan may be to stay in the course or withdraw before the W deadline. Initial Follow Up: Student receives automatic email with instructions to meet with professor to discuss concern and a plan; the student should communicate the plan to the primary advisor. Primary Advisor follows up with the student within 1 week of the alert submission if the student has not communicated their plan. Additional Follow Up: Assistant Dean/Director, Academic Success and Writing Center identifies appropriate point of contact(s) for additional outreach. Note: An automatic email will be sent to case assignees after 4 days of case inactivity |
Requesting Administrative Withdrawal Please note: This early alert has specific criteria that needs to be met. (1) The instructor must have submitted at least one early alert prior to a request for withdrawal. (2) There needs to be at least one week between the prior early alert and the request for withdrawal early alert. (3) The request for withdrawal must be submitted before the "W" deadline. | Assistant Dean/Director, Academic Success and Writing Center |
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Each Early Alert creates a “case” in Compass to allow the academic advisor and student support offices to track their outreach and interactions with the student.
A case is considered closed* when one of the following actions takes place:
- The student communicates their plan with their advisor.
- The professor tells the advisor that the concern has been addressed.
The student withdraws from the class or takes a leave of absence.
*Note: A case can be reopened if needed.
Who closes the case?
Advisor or case assignee(s)
How does an advisor update a case?
This document provides information on how an advisor updates and closes a case.
Early Alerts are for academic and non-emergency support.
- For emergency situations, please contact the Lehigh University Police at (610) 758-4200 immediately.
- For concerning student circumstances that go beyond academics and might require additional assistance from Lehigh's Care Team, please submit a Student Concerns Reporting Form.
- An instructor can request that the Registrar's Office administratively withdraw a student from their course using the following process:
- Submit an "Academic Concern" Early Alert: This gives the student a chance to address the issue or withdraw on their own.
- Wait at least one week: Give the student time to take action on the initial alert.
- Submit a "Requesting Administrative Withdrawal" Early Alert: If the student remains inactive after a week or longer, submit this second alert prior to the course withdrawal deadline to initiate the administrative withdrawal.
- Please note, students will only be withdrawn from a course *IF* the professors submits "Requesting Administrative Withdrawal" alert.