University students now have a clear, simple way to track their academic progress with the official launch of the Comprehensive Academic Tracking System on Oct. 4 after a two-year pilot stage.
CATS, a product of the Office of the University Registrar, is designed to increase retention, graduation rates and student success, said Patricia Beste, senior associate registrar.
Beste said the program tracks full-time students, starting with the current freshman class, on a semester basis to ensure they are on course to graduate on time.
Each major has a “recommended path that is the optimal path for graduation in four years,” according to program literature.
Degree progress is examined twice per semester by monitoring students on the critical requirements designated by each college, and CATS provides feedback when those requirements are not being met.
“CATS doesn’t allow students to go through a semester without taking critical requirements,” Beste said.”They will only be notified if they are not meeting minimum academic progress.”
Beste said the office predicted a specific outcome for the first year, and results have been on target with 10 percent of freshmen already off track.
In addition to a notification e-mail, CATS will put a hold on scheduling until the off-track student meets with an adviser.
“CATS has a human component to it,” said Brian Antie, CATS coordinator. “It works directly with students — counseling and advising is so important.”
But if students remain off track for two consecutive semesters, they will be required to change their major, said Clay Benton, assistant registrar.
“If you get out [of a major] and get caught up, you can absolutely declare it again,” Beste assured.
Summer and intersession classes are not tracked by CATS, and Beste said these times serve as a great opportunity to catch up.
She also stressed the program is in no way “punitive” or “punishing” and is instead geared to be “a useful and helpful tool for students.”
CATS is modeled after a program created by the University of Florida. Beste said UF has had a successful tracking system for 10 years and helped LSU create a similar version.
“It is not out of the box or off the shelf,” Antie said. “It’s customized on campus, for campus.”
The Office of Academic Affairs, Office of the University Registrar and University Information Systems have worked closely for the last five years to develop the tracking tool, and the last two years have been devoted to pilot programming.
CATS began testing paths in four programs in 2008. It expanded to 50 programs the following year and reached full implementation this year with 207 programs.
“We gained a ton of knowledge from the pilot programs,” Beste said. “We did a ‘180′ on the way it worked due to the great feedback, and we’re still learning.”
A few glitches have been encountered with the tool, but Beste said they were mostly misunderstandings that the registrar does not intend to let happen again.
“But that’s the difficult part to hold up with budget issues,” she said.
Beste said the program has taken the current University budget crisis into account and will update CATS every year or as needed. Departments will also be able to make changes to requirements as a result of constructive feedback or cuts.
“It’s not a static document,” she said. “It’s forever changing.”
Beste said she is excited about the results so far and is looking forward to the future of CATS, hoping to enhance the tool in the future, making it more interactive when scheduling.
“A degree is not inexpensive,” she said. “We don’t want to see students unguided or unable to see what to do.”
 
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Contact Sydni Dunn at [email protected]