AISS Newsletter: March 2026
Academic Momentum Campaign
Earlier this month, SUNY approved the University’s 2026 Academic Momentum Campaign proposal. The submitted, and now approved, proposal outlines a comprehensive, data-driven strategy to improve student persistence, retention and graduation outcomes through the UAlbany Advantage framework. The UAlbany Advantage model has already demonstrated improved retention and completion rates by aligning student support across divisions, reducing disconnectedness in the student experience and addressing institutional barriers at the campus level.
Given the gains already achieved through this work, the Academic Momentum Campaign will serve as an excellent complement to our UAlbany student success strategy and will further enhance the gains we have already made in student persistence and completion.
The UAlbany 2026 Academic Momentum Campaign aligns with SUNY goals and focuses on the following six outcome measures:
- Fall-to-fall retention
- Four-year graduation rates
- Six-year graduation rates
- 30 or more credits earned in the first year
- Gateway course completion
- FAFSA completion rate
Several key Campaign initiatives include meta-major pathways, proactive advising and coaching, early alert systems, financial and mental health supports, experiential learning access and flexible scheduling. The Campaign will continue our emphasis on cross-divisional collaboration, targeted support for Pell-eligible and at-risk students and data monitoring to enhance equity, academic momentum and degree completion.
Please be on the lookout for more information and additional updates as the Academic Momentum Campaign 2026 moves to the implementation phase.
Progress Reports
We have officially wrapped up the spring 2026 progress reporting cycle. We want to extend a sincere thank you to all instructors who took the time to submit reports. These insights are vital as they allow us to connect at-risk students with campus resources that support their continued success.
Thanks to the feedback derived from 30,104 faculty evaluations, we successfully identified 3,339 at-risk students (11%), all of whom were contacted by advisors and coaches to facilitate proactive support. In the April newsletter issue, we will offer a more comprehensive review of this semester’s progress reporting data.
Absence Accommodation Requests
This spring semester, there has been a steady increase in absence accommodation requests submitted to Undergraduate Education (UGE). Although UGE will notify instructors of their responsibility to provide academic accommodations in instances where the absence exceeds one calendar week or when a student has missed a major exam or assignment with verifiable justification, this occurs in situations where the instructor and student cannot agree on such accommodation. In such instances, the student can contact their academic advisor who will submit the academic accommodation request with supporting documentation to UGE.
However, instructors may use their discretion to excuse absences that last longer than a week or cause a student to miss a major exam or assignment without involving UGE. Additionally, every syllabus must include the class absence policy as part of the required syllabus content and should also include a link to the Attendance and Timely Compliance with Course Requirements policy. Undergraduate Academic Regulations (Attendance and Timely Compliance with Course Requirements) guidance encourages faculty to use their best judgement in deciding whether and how to accommodate student absences and in asking for documentation.
Please note that routinely requiring documentation to validate short-term student absences significantly increases the administrative workload of the Student Health Services and Counseling staff and thus diverts their clinical time away from direct student care.