Electronic program started in Athletic Department
By Dave Loveton, Sports Information
Monday, August 27, 2012
After a successful debut in the SBCC Athletic Department in the Spring of 2012, the “GradesFirst” electronic student-success platform is spreading to the entire SBCC campus.
GradesFirst combines early alert, advising, and tutor management into an exclusively web-based solution. The Enterprise version provides all campus advising and tutoring centers with a unified solution, which facilitates collaboration and produces campus-wide results.
“It eliminates the slow, crawling grade and progress reports that used to be done by paper,” said Vaquero football coach Craig Moropoulos. “Now, it’s all done on the internet. We can monitor our guys a lot easier and a lot quicker.
“If guys aren’t going to Study Hall or whatever, you can see it immediately and contact them by email. It’s better because the students know they’re going to be checked on a daily basis. Communication between the students, teachers, counselors and coaches is really enhanced.”
The system centralizes student documentation, provides online appointment scheduling, integrates tutor management, and automates communication with students via text and email messaging.
The GradesFirst program arrived at the perfect time since the NCAA just raised minimum GPA for community college student-athlete transfers to 2.5.
“We view athletics as a student success program,” said SBCC Athletic Director Ryan Byrne. “Most of our student-athletes plan to transfer to a four-year, NCAA institution. It’s our responsibility to put the students in the best possible position to be successful and reach the academic goals. Now that community college transfer student-athletes have to have a minimum 2.5 GPA in specific, degree applicable courses, we have to find ways to work even more effectively with our student-athletes in their academic pursuits.
“We are in the business of creating opportunities for student-athletes to have success at SBCC, at the four-year level and in life.”
SBCC Athletics is committed to the success of its student-athletes and helping them transfer to the next level. As a “Top 10” Community College in the U.S., the education and coaching provided are second to none.
SBCC student-athletes are twice as likely as non-students to be transfer-ready after two years and to complete their degree. Nearly 33 percent of all student-athletes are on the Honor Roll with over a 3.0 GPA.
“Now that we use GradesFirst, our Progress Reports receive very high response rates and coaches and counselors get an immediate opportunity to follow up with students who may show signs of needing support,” noted Byrne. “We are also able to utilize GradesFirst in the Student-Athlete Academic Achievement Zone where our tutors can provide targeted tutoring based on professor feedback and our coaches can immediately check on athletes.”
