Recently, some students may have received an email about Stoplight Surveys. These surveys are a part of the Wildcat360 system, and they indicate a student’s performance in a class with a green, yellow or red light. 

“It’s usually just students who have yellow and red lights that we reach out to,” said Janet Greder, Director of the Holland Academic Success Center. “Every semester we seem to be getting more faculty to participate and fill out the survey and get the information back to us.” 

According to Greder, Wildcat360 pulls information from Canvas like students’ grades, attendance and schedule. This allows instructors to send in an early alert to the Holland Center so advisors can reach out to and get in contact with students about potentially getting tutoring or counseling. 

While getting a red or yellow light for a class might be stressful, these surveys are intended to help students get the academic help they need, not to tell them that they’re doing poorly. 

“If a student gets an email from one of us, it’s not about them being in trouble,” Greder said. “It’s really about the staff being able to reach out to them and say, ‘hey, come see us so that we can help you.’” 

Data from one of the previous spotlight surveys found that a majority of WSC’s student body is taught by just under half of the faculty. 

“With 75% of our students being surveyed, 49% of faculty completed that survey,” Dani Eskens, an Advisor in the Holland Academic Success Center, said. “That’s pretty insane to think of. Fifty percent of our faculty teach such a huge majority of those students.” 

With this semester’s week five Stoplight Surveys done, students who receive an email about having yellow or red light are encouraged, but not required, to reach back out and see what help they need to get back on track academically. Students who didn’t receive an email but are still worried about their grades can contact the Holland Academic Success Center at [email protected], or at Conn Library room 232.