The solstice was last week, but Summer '21 starts now! Student Success Hub (Advisor Link) 2.53, our Summer '21 major release, is scheduled to begin pushing to sandboxes tonight, July 1, 2021. Look for the update in your instance over the next couple of days. The push to production is scheduled to begin Tuesday evening, July 13, 2021.   We have two major new features for you, as well as some enhancements and bug fixes. Let's start with the major features, which are behind the new Summer '21 release gate.

 Summer '21 Release Gate 

First, there's the release gate itself. To activate features that are gated, go to the SAL Settings page and use the Release Manager component. In order to see the component on the SAL Settings page, you must add the ReleaseGateController Apex class to your system administrator profile. Do that now, and you'll be ready to roll.  Note: Don't add the ReleaseGateController Apex class to your support staff profile or permission set. Only you, as a Student Success Hub admin, need access to the Release Manager.  In the Release Manager, you'll find information about new features, links to the documentation, and a button to activate the release. Remember to set up the features in your sandbox first, then in production, and then activate the release to make the features available in your org. 

 Flexible Student Snapshot

Second, we've completely redesigned the Student Snapshot. Headline fields are now displayed directly under the student's name. Also, instead of three static item counters—Tasks, Alerts, and Appointments—two of which (Tasks and Appointments) don't make sense for Student Success Hub users—you can now customize the counters that show in the Snapshot. We recommend you configure the Snapshot to show Alerts and Success Plans.  You can now also add student photos to the component, giving your support staff a photo to show with the student's name. Finally, you can now place the component on record pages for other Case types.  There are no new objects or fields with the redesign; no perms need to be updated. To customize the counters, add photos, or include the Snapshot on other Case pages, however, you'll need to do some configuration. For details, see Set Up the Student Snapshot and Student Details. Even if you don't customize the new flexible Snapshot, you must activate the Summer '21 release in order to see the redesigned component in your org.

 Program Management Module - New Article Coming Soon!

 We are so excited to share the Program Management Module (PMM) with you. A free and open source add-on, Program Management Module can help you extend your tiered support model to better track programs and services across your school or district. Closely following our summer release, we will be adding a new article to our documentation about using Program Management Module alongside Student Success Hub. In the meantime, you can go to the Program Management Module documentation or the Program Management Trailhead module to learn more.

Release Readiness Live

You can view demos of both of the Flexible Student Snapshot and Program Management Module, plus all of the new innovations across Education Cloud, in our Release Readiness Live video.

Other Enhancements and Fixes

We made the following enhancements and bug fixes. These fixes aren't gated, and you don't have to do anything. They take effect automatically in your org.

• We fixed a known issue that caused the Add Success Team Member window to be too small to show the list of advisors in the search list. Now, the window is larger so that users don't have to scroll to see all the names.
• We fixed a known issue that allowed support staff to create and apply an inactive Success Plan Template to a student. Now, only active Success Plan Templates are available to apply.  As always, please let us know if you have any questions about this release. Do you have suggestions for future enhancements? Head over to the Advisor Link category on the Trailblazer Community Ideas Exchange.