Reporting Concerns About Individual Students

ACTION ITEMS

If a student has been persistently absent and/or unresponsive to emails, or if a student is in danger of failing your course, contacting advising can help connect the student to additional services and ensure that others are aware of the student’s situation. Please use the Action Item function in MyBU to share your concerns with your student’s advisor. When a faculty member creates an Action Item, the student’s advisor will be notified by email. Action Items are available at any point in the semester.

You can create an Action Item by navigating to your course roster, checking the student of concern, and selecting the Action item icon (see below). More detailed information is available in this guide.

Image of the steps needed to create an Action Item in MyBU

MIDSEMESTER REVIEWS

New in Fall 2026, Midsemester Reviews are returning as well. They will be available in MyBU for 4-5 weeks in the middle of the semester. Midsemester Reviews may be initiated by either instructors or by advisors:

  • An instructor may update a student’s Advisors regarding any student at risk of not successfully completing the course (e.g., is likely to receive a grade of D or lower) at mid-term who would benefit from learning from an advisor about academic resources and options such as withdrawing from a course.
  • Advisors may send a Request for Review through MyBU Student, prompting that student’s instructors to provide an update on that student (e.g., for students on Academic Probation). 

 

TERRIERS CARE

Faculty, along with all other members of the BU community, can also use the Terriers CARE reporting form, a resource designed to simplify the process of reaching out to students in distress. The Terriers CARE forms are shared with advisors, first-year success directors, and Behavioral Medicine to help students holistically; please fill out the form to report “behaviors that may indicate a student or employee is in distress, struggling with mental health, exhibiting disruptive or threatening behavior, or showing signs of potential harm to self or others. When in doubt, report.” (Note that due to privacy laws (e.g., FERPA), you may not receive detailed responses to your report, but faculty “concerns are taken seriously and are followed up appropriately.”)

Of course, in the case of immediate concerns about a student’s health or well-being, faculty should contact Student Health Services, which offers 24/7 phone consultations.

 

OTHER RESOURCES

In addition to reporting your concerns about students via any of the above methods, you may also want to connect students to particular resources. Student Wellbeing provides a comprehensive list of additional support resources across campus that may be helpful to students.