Shelley Shade

The "Excellence: The Path to Success" Strategic Plan for Northeastern State University (2015-2023) outlines a roadmap for creating and sustaining an institutional environment of continuous assessment and improvement. It is built upon six strategic goals: advancing academic excellence and student success; securing and sustaining necessary resources; supporting economic development and community stewardship at local, tribal, and regional levels; honoring its heritage as a cultural center; engaging in creativity and innovation; and ensuring institutional effectiveness through continuous improvement. The plan aims to empower constituents to reach their full intellectual and human potential, provide transformative educational experiences, and serve the intellectual, cultural, social, and economic needs of its diverse communities.

This document, an Assurance Argument for Northeastern State University, details how the institution's mission, vision, and values guide its operations, ensuring integrity, ethical conduct, and responsible acquisition of knowledge. It outlines commitments to public good, quality education with rigorous academic offerings, diverse student support services, and fostering civic engagement in a multicultural society. The institution's direction is notably shaped by key guiding documents such as Destination 2023 and the Strategic Plan 2015-2023, reflecting a continuous review process to align institutional operations with its stated mission.

The Northeastern State University Quality Initiative, 'Sustaining Student Success,' aims to understand student educational mindsets and goals, identify impediments, and implement proactive practices to help students achieve their educational objectives. The initiative focuses on three main goals: understanding students' definitions of success through goal-setting and meta-major updates; improving individual student success by validating methods for at-risk students and enhancing developmental services; and strengthening institutional success through increased immersive learning opportunities and market-responsive academic programs. Ultimately, this project seeks to design academic and co-curricular programs that provide tailored institutional support, fostering student development and leading to improved enrollment, retention, attrition, and completion rates.

This Quality Initiative Report details Northeastern State University's (NSU) 'Sustaining Student Success' project, launched in summer 2017. The initiative focused on understanding students' educational goals and mindsets, identifying impediments, and implementing practices to enhance persistence. Key goals included aligning curriculum to students' definitions of success, improving individual student success through data-driven identification of at-risk students and refined course offerings, and enhancing institutional success by better integrating academic, student support, and engagement systems.

This document, titled 'Program Outcomes Report for Continuous Improvement,' outlines the annual evaluation of Northeastern State University's counseling program for the 2023-2024 academic year. It details the assessment of Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and CACREP standards across Clinical Mental Health, Addiction, and School Counseling emphasis areas, utilizing data from the CPCE Exit Exam, Key Performance Indicators, and stakeholder feedback. A core strategic priority is the realignment of all course syllabi and learning experiences with the 2024 CACREP standards to enhance program quality. The plan aims to foster professional stewardship, cultivate learning, promote social justice, and develop ethical counselors who are change agents.