A new program hopes to detect student failure and to promote involvement in activities.

The program, sponsored by the Academic Support Systems in the Division of Student Affairs, will detect students’ failure early in their academic careers, beginning with freshman year. The Division of Student Affairs presented its new program at the Board of Trustees meeting Thursday.

The program is also intended to get students involved in student organizations and keep them involved during their time at NIU, said vice provost Earl Seaver.

The focus of the program is to help students become more prepared for the real world through experiences in the university. Almost 2,000 of the 3,100 freshmen enrolled at NIU this fall will receive some sort of contact in the next few weeks.

“We are trying to identify who doesn’t have a connection with the university, who isn’t participating,” Seaver said.

The new system will accomplish this by looking at a student’s involvement in the university, attendance in classes and grades from various teachers. The program will also call various students who have not been involved so far in the university and ask if they have concerns about becoming active.

By doing this, it will be easy to find those who are not making the initial contact they need to be successful students in the future.

“[We’re going to find] what they did in high school; we want them to know that we have those same programs here at NIU,” said Brian Hemphill, vice president for Student Affairs. “We just want to engage in conversation with them and want to make sure they are doing well.”

After the initial contact with the student, someone will then follow up with them throughout the semester and again during the first part of their second year.

“It’s so important for students to be involved,” Hemphill said. “Finding their niche at the university is so valuable to making their NIU experience something unique and special.”