Point Park is enforcing a new policy that requires all members of the University faculty to take attendance for every class and to report students who are having difficulties in them. 

This is done to not only help with a school budgeting system called Census, or as part of federal guidelines for financial aid reports, but to help with students who are struggling in school with the University’s Early Alert system. 

It was Karen McIntyre, Senior Vice President of Academic Student Affairs, who had the idea to begin this process of requiring professors to record attendance to help the University keep better track of their students in order to reduce drop outs and to intervene early when necessary. 

Last year, about 30 full-time faculty tested it, but as the word got out, she ended up with between 50 to 70 faculty members volunteering to use it. Although at first this only applied to full-time faculty, starting last semester, it now applies to all faculty, full-time and part-time. 

“We practiced it, we piloted it last year, now we’re doing it,” said James Thomas, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs in his office Feb. 5. 

According to Thomas, McIntyre’s requested these volunteers because of the budgeting system used by the school, Census. During the beginning part of the semester, there is a snapshot taken of each class, which shows how many people are currently present in each. It helps the school to keep track of who’s attending classes and how many registered and never showed up. 

The Early Alert system can be used by all faculty to report student attendances, absences and comment if there are any complications the student may be having in class. 

This new policy requires extra work for faculty, but this is “far outweighed by the benefits,” according to Fred Angiolieri, who teaches Honors Visual Communication Design for Point Park. 

“There’s an avenue that I have to try to help a student in a class, rather than let them fail out,” Angiolieri said. 

Josh Hutton has some experience with the Early Alert system. “Overall, I think it’s a good idea for kids who are having issues,” Hutton, a recent transfer student, said. 

Hutton has suffered from depression and is happy that if he starts slipping, someone will notice. 

When he fell into the throes of his illness, it was difficult for him to get out of bed on some days and his grades began to dip. Because of the Early Alert system, he was contacted and informed of the resources to help get back on track. 

The system is not only built to intervene when students are troubled, but also to contact students who have other issues, ranging from financial insecurity, difficulty in courses, keeping track of students and student success. 

“More importantly, is to make sure students are progressing and doing well in their courses,” Thomas said. 

Outside of budgeting and keeping track of student success, this policy also helps with federal financial aid guidelines. In order to follow the guidelines, Point Park is required to give a verification of all students getting financial aid, and confirm that these students are in the classes they are registered for. This can be can be used when a student withdrawals from a course or transfers to a different school. 

“On the whole, it seems like a good policy,” Paul Thomas Houghton, English Composition professor, said. 

Thomas says since the programs are new, he does not want students to think these changes are in place to lower their grades.