Increased Student Persistence
Early Action helped increase student retention of 71.5%
We recently had our highest level of student persistence for students on Early Action at 71.5% (F21-Spr22).
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Learn About Early Action at CU Denver
Early Action for Students
Early Action for Faculty & Staff
Early Action at CU Denver
The Office of Student Success implements the high-impact practice of Early Action. We send out a prompt through EAB's student success platform, Navigate, to ask faculty to identify students that may benefit from additional support. Our team is focused on providing students with holistic support through strengths-based outreach, critical conversations, and triage to student support teams.
Early Action for Students
Early Action helps students by connecting them to useful resources that will support them in their current situation. Efforts will be made to personally reach out to students by our team and campus partners if needed. Our partners consist of academic support offices, academic advisors and student success staff.
We ask your instructors to submit a report with any of their students that they'd like us to contact. This may be because you missed a few classes, could benefit from tutoring, are missing assignments, or for just a general check-in. You may receive a phone call or email from our office checking in with you during the semester. This is meant to be a call to action, and we believe that you are capable of having a successful semester. We can connect you with different on-campus resources or help you start critical conversations with your professor, advisor, or other person on campus. We encourage you to engage in this process, and remember- we're here to help!
Academic Advising
Your Academic Advisor is an excellent resource. Along with course registration, planning your schedule, and learning more about degree requirements, advisors can connect you with the right resources and guide you along their entire academic journey.
Schedule an appointment with your advisor here!
The Auraria Library
The Auraria Library is an great resource for improving research skills and gathering materials for coursework. In addition to course reserve textbooks and computer labs, the library is an excellent place to study alone or with friends.
Bursar's Office
At CU Denver, billing and payments are handled by the Bursar's Office. Their website is designed to share everything you need to know about your tuition bill.
Disability Resources & Services (DRS)
DRS promotes an inclusive experience and equal access for students to all aspects of campus life. They will coordinate reasonable accommodations to provide students equal access to the university’s programs, activities, and services.
Financial Aid
The Financial Aid office helps students find assistance and services that can help you pay for college. They can assist in financial literacy as well as help you navigate grants and student loans.
Learning Resources Center (LRC)
The LRC provide several different services that cater to every student's specific learning requirements. Use their website as a one-stop-shop to learn more about their services and make an appointment for the ones that best suit your needs. Each service provided by the Learning Resources Center is available at no additional cost for fee-paying CU Denver students.
Academic Coaching workshops help students build and hone their working skills, like time management, which are also helpful for your future career.
Peer Tutoring is available for any of the listed classes. Work with a peer that took this class and did well.
RISE The Resources for Immigrant Students and English Language Learners (RISE) program is an academic and social support program that has a goal to support immigrant and English Language Learners by providing them with one-on-one meetings in which they can talk about their academic needs.
Workshops offer a variety of services and resources so you can discover the learning and study methods that work best for you.
Math and Statistical Support
(MaSS, formerly MERC) is tutoring specific to math and statistics based courses.
Office of Information Technology (OIT)
OIT is responsible for technology support for the entire campus. Here you can find help with programs, software, and hardware essential to your education and college experience.
Registrar
The Registrar's office houses your student records and important paperwork. Their team brings expertise in areas related to registration, academic calendars, catalogs, degree audit, grade collection, diplomas, transcripts, enrollment certification, veteran education benefits, and more.
The Writing Center
The Writing Center empowers student writers through collaborative discussion and instruction, no matter the project size or discipline.
Email Template- Contact Your Professor
Many students don't know how to start a conversation with an instructor. This template provides a general script to help you start the conversation with your professor. Any of our staff are glad to help you craft a more specific email, just contact us!
Supplemental Programs
- First Year Programs: First-year students acclimate to the rigors of college-level work, engage in the active social and intellectual life of our campus, work closely with faculty and peer leaders, and make close friends and study partners.
- TRIO-SSS helps first-generation, low-income students, and students with disabilities reach their full potential and achieve academic success.
Student Involvement
- Student Activities helps a student find opportunities to get involved around campus.
- The Career Center engages students in career conversations early and often, in order to help you understand what brought you to college, how you can build experiences and relationships, and to realize your professional potential.
Student Safety, Health, & Wellbeing
- Wellness Center provides students with services and equipment to promote holistic wellness no matter your characteristics or identity. They can help you improve your physical, mental, and financial wellbeing.
- The Counseling Center provides mental health counseling services to CU Denver students and the Denver Metro community.
- Case Management supports struggling students by fostering student growth, development, and success by assisting students dealing with areas related to mental health, emotional well-being, and safety. If you are worried about a student, you can submit a CARE Report.
- The CARE Team was created to help you navigate a wide variety of life’s challenges. We help students create plans to confront difficulties while providing support and resources to keep you safe and successful.
- The Phoenix Center provides free and confidential resources and assistance to survivors of interpersonal violence (relationship violence, sexual violence, and stalking), as well as their friends, families, and concerned others.
- The Health Center at Auraria provides in-person and virtual services for the Auraria Campus. The Health Center provides physical and mental health care for all persons.
- Single Stop connects students to local community and governmental resources (e.g. SNAP and Medicaid) that can help them overcome barriers to basic needs, such as food and housing.
Student Identity
- Veteran & Military Student Services is committed to providing service members and their families with a high-quality education, catered to their distinct needs.
- International Student & Scholar Services advises, assists, and educates international students in every step of their academic journey.
- Undocumented Student Services undocumented and mixed status students at all intersections of documentation and equity needs, to support them in achieving their degree, to create an equitable educational environment, and to advocate alongside students for continuous improvements in their college experience.
- Center for Identity & Inclusion supports underrepresented students and promote a diverse and inclusive campus for all students, faculty, and staff.
You can find contact information and a summary of these resources here.
Parents & Family
CU Denver recognizes the role that family and support systems play in a student's success. We welcome you to get involved starting here.
Our goal is to support you during your time here as a CU Denver Lynx. In addition to referral-based outreach, we are happy to help connect you with any resources. We're here to help!
We are available to you Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM.
Phone: 303-315-0259
Email: student.success@ucdenver.edu
Early Action for Faculty & Staff
Early Action Spring 2023 Calendar
First Week Absences Report: January 23 – January 30 (16-week courses only)
Course Progress Report: February 15 – March 17
*Modified Course Progress Reports:
First 8-week session: February 1 – February 15
Second 8-week session: April 3 – April 17
International College Beijing (ICB): March 8 - March 31
We are continuing to implement a positive referral, called “Keep Up the Great Work!”. This referral should be used when you want to acknowledge that your student is doing a great job in class and to recognize their hard work. We’re hoping that this positive referral process will increase engagement and students’ sense of belonging on campus. Students with this referral will receive a personalized, encouraging email from our office.
The chart below outlines our outreach strategy. We will reach out to the students to better understand their situation, offer support and resources, and advise them on a course of action.
| Referral | Outreach & Triage |
| Academic Readiness Support Suggested | Student Success → Academic Support Community (as needed) |
| Assignments or Tests Missing | Student Success → Advising Community (as needed) |
| Content Tutoring | Student Success → Academic Support Community (as needed) |
| Keep Up the Great Work! | Student Success |
| Low Attendance or Participation Pattern | Student Success → Advising Community (as needed) |
Note: For SEHD students, the Student Success Center will be included. Additionally, TRIO, ISSS and VMSS, and other coaching units are notified.
How to Issue a Referral
Early Action How-To for Instructors
Instructions for TAs
Additional Resources
Supporting Your Students in Spring 2022
Why should I participate in Early Action?
- It proactively notifies support staff that there are students that could benefit from extra support
- It helps students access additional support needed to improve their academic experience (workshops on study skills, time management, content tutoring, etc.)
- Improve student success in the first year -the earlier we know a student needs support the more likely we are able to provide resources that may lead to higher retention
- It allows academic advisors and support staff to identify students who are experiencing difficulties in many of their classes
- It helps develop a culture of student support and care here at CU Denver
When should I submit an Early Action report vs. CARE Report?
Submit Early Action when a student:
- Has multiple absences or very little engagement in class
- Needs additional academic assistance through the Learning Resources Center or other academic support office
- Has incomplete assignments or multiple low scores
- Needs help with accessing or using technology
Submit a CARE report when a student:
- Exhibits any substantial change in behavior, mood, or appearance
- Fails to maintain academic boundaries in and out of the classroom
- Expresses significant personal or family problems in conversations, emails, or assignments
- Has experienced a death/significant illness of a family member or friend
- Has been hospitalized, injured, or is experiencing a significant illness
- Has indicated severe resource insecurity affecting access to housing, food, or any other basic needs
*Please contact the CARE team at 303-315-7306 if you have any questions about CARE reports.
When should I submit an Early Action report vs. an Advising referral through Navigate?
Submit Early Action when a student:
- Has multiple absences or very little engagement in class
- Needs additional academic assistance through the Learning Resources Center or other academic support office
- Has incomplete assignments or multiple low scores
- Needs help with accessing or using technology
Submit an Advising referral when a student:
- Needs support on withdrawing from your course or needs information on other options. If a student is not attending, needs tutoring, or has other academic needs, please submit a referral through Early Action.
You may also submit a referral at any point in the semester where you want to notify support staff that the student:
- Has multiple absences or very little engagement in class
- Needs additional academic assistance through the Learning Resources Center or other academic support office
- Has incomplete assignments or multiple low scores
- Needs help with accessing or using technology
You can submit the "Student Success Initiatives" referral through Navigate, which will be directly triaged to our team for outreach.
The Student Success Initiatives team will be performing all triage and outreach to get students connected to the correct resource as efficiently as possible. We are focused on providing holistic academic and goal-oriented support to students with Early Action referrals. We will involve advisors only when deemed necessary, such as when a student needs to revisit their course schedule, investigate different majors, or consider dropping a class.
How should I communicate Early Action to my students?
We know that the relationship between faculty and students is deeply important to student success. We highly recommend you first talk to the student about their progress in your course and let them know to expect a phon call or email from support staff. Member of the SEP Project have also developed an insert that you can include in your syllabi:
Succeeding at college does not mean that you don’t struggle in a class or classes or during particular semesters. My goal as your instructor and our goal at CU Denver is to do all we can to support every student and facilitate their success. Early Action (Course Progress Report: CPR) is one of the ways we try to support our students. It’s a process by which individual courses can link you to campus supports and it’s a time for your instructors to let you know what changes you can make toward success in the course and engage in a learning partnership with you. This is a way to open up the conversation between you and your instructor so that together you can work out how to achieve your goals in the course.
Getting an Early Action communication is not an indication that you will not succeed in the course. It is a call to action. You might get an email or phone call. Please engage in this process. Students who have taken advantage of resources offered them are able to move forward and succeed in the course.
Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning Their goal is to enhance excellence in education through the development of faculty committed to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices. They are here to support you at any stage of your teaching career!
Red Folder Resources for faculty and staff to help identify and respond to students in crisis.
Supporting Your Students in Spring 2022 Faculty spend more time with students than anyone else on campus, making them critical partners in supporting students and their success. Here are some tips on further supporting students!
Early Action Outcomes
Increased Student Contact
We have increased our contact made rate to 40.6%
We have improved contact rates with students to 40.6% in Spr22. This means that we had a two-way conversation with the student about the course they received a referral in. These conversations are either over the phone or through email.Improved Student GPA
We have helped 6.8% more students on Early Action achieve passing grades
Students who connected with the Early Action team or a triage partner were more likely to pass their classes. 6.8% more students passed classes after a conversation with Early Action staff than those who did not make contact.Tableau Dashboards
We are working on two dashboards in Tableau: One for faculty participation by section, and one with aggregate student outcomes. We will announce when these are ready to our campus partners.