The NHU was granted initial accreditation by WASC in June 2002. In its letter, WASC commended the university for its work, as well as its achievement of goals such as the purchase of the land to construct a new building, its ongoing capital campaign, and academic development.
In this letter, WASC also indicated there were some areas on which the NHU needed to work constantly to address some of the problems that the visiting team encountered. One of those recommendations related to strategic planning. The letter said,
The University has developed a number of institutional planning documents […] Despite the numerous planning documents, it is in the area of planning or lack of planning that the University is most vulnerable. The team uncovered a significant gap between the University’s expectations for its development and its financial plans.
In September 2002, the founding president of the NHU, Dr. B. Roberto Cruz, passed away. An acting President was named and she, the Provost and the Board of Trustees started working on the recommendations specified by WASC. In December 2002, the Board of Trustees asked the acting President and the Provost to start working on a comprehensive strategic plan and gave three major initiatives that they wanted to see as the basis of such plan: 1) Increase and sustain enrollment; 2) Advance prestige and sharing of best practices; and 3) Integrate inquiry into NHU’s learning communities.
In January 2003, the Provost and the Director of the Office of Institutional Planning and Evaluation (OIPE) began working on the development of the strategic plan. As a first step, a series of meetings with individual academic and administrative departments were scheduled. During these meetings, participants were asked to develop a needs assessment review where they specified their department goals and needs for the next one, three and five years (Appendix
1A). Once the departmental surveys were submitted, divisional meetings for Academic Affairs and Student Affairs were scheduled. Within these two groups, all the university academic and administrative departments met and worked together to develop a vision for the division, and to determine the goals, priorities, and needs to achieve that vision. NHU students were also invited to participate in focus groups. During these focus groups, students were asked to think of NHU’s future and visualize what they would like to see happening at the university in terms of academics and student life.
The information obtained during the division meetings, the student focus groups, and the President’s Cabinet retreat was compiled and presented during a university-wide planning meeting at the beginning of April 2003. During this session, faculty, student services personnel and administrative staff worked together in groups and provided information on the areas on which they could work together, and on how addressing the major key themes they could achieve their goals and make the university strategic initiatives happen. Once all the information was compiled, it was organized to address the three strategic initiatives. A draft of the strategic plan was distributed among the University community, and once feedback was received, a final version was developed. The final version of the Strategic Plan was submitted to the university community and then to the Board of Trustees to receive their approval. In June 2003, the Board of Trustees approved the Strategic Plan (Appendix 1B) and it was officially adopted.
When the Strategic Plan was developed, all WASC recommendations were taken into consideration. The recommendations showed NHU the areas on which it needed to work the most and where efforts needed to be centered. The NHU recognized also that work on those recommendations was not a one-time task, but an ongoing responsibility. Thus, all the recommendations are addressed in the strategic plan across the board and in specific areas.
Approach to the Strategic Plan Implementation
The implementation of the Strategic Plan was initially approached in a very structured manner, relying on three major components: 1) Departmental action plans and quarterly reports; 2) Quarterly reviews by the President’s Cabinet and; 3) A comprehensive assurance system to conduct inquiry, assessment, feedback and improvement. Academic, student services, the library and administrative departments were asked to prepare an action plan to work on the strategic initiatives within their areas and report to the OIPE their progress, comments and resource needs. OIPE would then present a summary of these reports to the President’s cabinet for their evaluation and to take action on those areas in which it was necessary. The departments received templates to develop their action plans (Appendix
1C), as well as templates to report their progress quarterly (Appendix
1D). A template to present the quarterly summary (Appendix
1E) was also developed.
Changes in Leadership and Their Effect on the Strategic Plan Implementation
In 2003, the NHU saw changes in its leadership positions. In September, after a nationwide search, Dr. David P. Lopez was appointed President of the NHU. At the end of that same year, an interim Provost was hired. The change in leadership did have some effects on the implementation of the Strategic Plan. Both the new President and interim Provost familiarized themselves with the strategic plan and started to focus on areas they considered were critical at that moment.
In September 2004, the office of the President organized a retreat to revisit the strategic plan and select the initiatives that were going to contribute to the three major areas the President and the Board of Trustees had selected as essential to NHU’s development—recruitment, retention and revenue. Key staff, representing academic departments, student services, and administrative areas, was invited to the retreat. With the help of a facilitator, the group went through the strategic plan document and from each of the major initiatives, participants selected those that they considered would contribute to the key areas and would reflect the progress that the university had been trying to achieve.
The original strategic plan had three major initiatives and 22 sub-initiatives. From those, the people in the retreat decided to keep the three initiatives as stated and selected 14 sub-initiatives. Table SP1 (Appendix
1F) shows the results from this retreat. In general, the group selected the initiatives they considered were key to NHU’s development, that would address WASC recommendations and that would ultimately contribute to the three R’s—recruitment, retention and revenue—that the President had presented to the group as the new directives for the university.
After the retreat and after receiving the information collected by the facilitator, the director of OIPE prepared a new format (Appendix
1G) to report the progress in the strategic plan implementation. Additionally, a new committee—the Strategic Plan Committee—was formed. The purpose of this committee was to monitor the implementation of the strategic plan and to address the needs, problems, and concerns of the departments in charge of working on the initiatives. The committee was formed by the President, the Provost, the Vice-President of Finance and Administration, the director of Student Services, the chair of the Faculty Senate, and the director of OIPE. Since these participants represented the major academic, student and administrative departments, it was considered they could address problems or concerns in the implementation of the strategic initiatives. The committee tried to convene every three months to monitor the progress of the departments. After the meetings, the implementation report was updated (Appendix
1H) and made available to the strategic committee members for further distribution.
Current Progress in the Strategic Plan Implementation
In August 2005, a new Interim Provost was hired and she monitored the strategic plan implementation and organized the strategic committee meetings for the 2005-2006 academic year. The following account shows the strategic plan implementation status as of June 2006.
A. Increase and Sustain Enrollment
The goals selected under this strategic initiative aimed at helping increase enrollment through an aggressive recruitment campaign, by maintaining a high retention rate, enrolling transfer students by having strong relationships with SJSU and local community colleges, and as a result, by building financial and academic capacity to retain and graduate the enrolled students.
1. Expand partnerships and articulation agreements
The NHU wants to have stronger partnerships and articulation agreements with SJSU and with local community colleges in order to help increase transfer student enrollment and work on common projects. When WASC visited the NHU in 2002, the university had a very close relationship with SJSU. Both President Caret and the late President Cruz had an excellent working partnership that extended to all areas in both universities. With changes happening not only in the President positions in both universities, but also in other leadership posts—Provosts, Vice-Presidents, and directors, the working relationship changed. Some meetings have recently taken place between SJSU’s President and NHU’s President, and different topics for future collaboration have been discussed. The NHU expects to develop a more active collaboration with SJSU within the current academic year. (Appendix
1I)
As a first step to restart and expand articulation agreements, the NHU appointed one of its faculty members as Articulation Officer in fall 2005. His main purpose was to renew the articulation agreement with SJSU and submit new courses for consideration. A total of 41 courses were submitted in November 2005 for articulation and in spring 2006, the NHU was informed by SJSU’s articulation office that 34 of those courses had been approved (Appendix 1J). In addition to working on the articulation agreement with SJSU, the articulation officer also finalized course-to-course articulations with De Anza Community College, Foothill Community College, Evergreen Valley Community College and San Jose City College (Appendix
1J) that will make transferring between NHU and those institutions more seamless.
Another venue of collaboration with SJSU is the “3+2 Engineering Program” that both universities want to establish. The NHU has now two new Associate of Science degrees that focus on Math and Science (see NHU General Catalog) and one of them has an emphasis on engineering. Most of the courses in math and science have been already articulated, and the new chair for the Math and Science programs that was named in September 2006 will start working with the engineering programs at SJSU to determine the next steps to develop this program (Appendix
1K).
2. Recruitment and Outreach Campaign
Enrollment at the NHU during the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 academic years was modestly steady, and it did not grow at the pace that the university needed in order to increase the enrollment at the levels that the Board of Trustees and the strategic plan had established, that is,1000 students by 2008. Thus, in spring 2004, a new recruitment coordinator was hired and an aggressive campaign started taking place in the fall 2004 (Appendix
1L - Tables). Under President Lopez’s direct supervision and active participation, the recruitment office made visits to and presentations at high schools, made ads on radio, television and newspapers, and developed news stories, brochures and printed information.
This recruitment campaign had good results for the enrollment of Fall 2005 and for the whole academic year. The NHU received 161 new undergraduate students and enrolled its largest cohort (first-time, full-time freshmen) ever —109 students. For the 2005-2006 academic year, the university had a total enrollment of 773 students (including the post-baccalaureate and certificate programs), and out of those, 249 were new undergraduate students and a total of 346 new students arrived to NHU. For the Fall 2006, the same strategy was followed in order to achieve a goal of 325 students for the new academic year. Preliminary enrollment numbers look similar to last year’s and the recruitment office is expecting to reach that goal. The recruitment office is currently working on a plan in order to achieve the goal of 1000 students for the Fall 2008 (Appendix 1M - OR Tables - LCPA Tables).
3. Maintain a high retention rate
Three key areas were associated to this goal: 1) identify students who need financial and academic help to ensure their continuous enrollment; 2) develop new academic programs and extracurricular activities that would make NHU more attractive; and 3) institutionalize a student support structure through the Student Academic Assistance Center (SAAC).
As a first step to help students with academic needs, remedial courses in English and Math, and low level courses also in English and Math require students to spend a certain number of hours at the SAAC with tutors in order to ensure they receive all the help they might need in these academic areas. In addition, the SAAC director designed a referral form (Appendix
1N) to have faculty members identify students who required additional help to be sent to the SAAC. Unfortunately, this initiative has not been widely used. Steps to find the reasons behind this are being taken this fall semester.
In spring 2006, the undergraduate academic departments developed the Midterm Intervention program for students receiving a C- or below. Through this plan, faculty members identify and meet with students who need help with their coursework. A detailed description of this program and its results for spring 2006 can be read in the MIP report (Appendix
1O).
In 2005, the NHU received a grant for a Student Success Program. Through this program, students are identified and helped throughout their academic studies (Appendix
1P).
In addition to all these efforts, the office of the Provost is working on the development of the First Year Experience program to give students a common experience in their curriculum and campus life and help support the retention efforts for new students and first-time freshmen (Appendix
1Q).
On the financial aid front, the Financial Aid and the Grants and Contracts offices have been working on both helping students obtain state and federal aid and on obtaining money from donations and grants to provide students with scholarships and help them stay in college. The financial aid report for the academic year 2005-2006 shows the results of these efforts for last year (Appendix
1R).
As an effort to increase enrollment and help maintain a high retention rate, the NHU decided to embark on the development of new academic degrees. In 2004, the Single Subject Credential was added to the Teacher Education offerings (see NHU General Catalog). In fall 2005, new Associate of Science Degrees in Mathematics and Science started, as well as an Associate of Science Degree in Computer Networking. In spring 2006, the new Associate of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education also started. In the Teacher Education department, a new credential in Special Education was approved by CCTC in September 2006, and the department is planning on enrolling students as early as October 2006 (see NHU General Catalog). All these programs will be recruiting students and the university expects to start seeing significant results by fall 2007.
4. Build capacity
In order to build capacity, the NHU recognized that a combination of high enrollment and retention rates and financial stability are needed. As described above, there is a university-wide effort to recruit and retain students. These efforts also aim at obtaining steady tuition revenue that will contribute to the university’s financial planning. As part of this initiative, other goals included are growth of NHU’s endowment, increase in corporate, business and individual donations, establishment of a new capital campaign, and growth of the scholarship fund. The Financial Planning Essay describes in detail the work and plans that the Finance Office, the Grants and Contracts office and other areas have to build a stable financial capacity.
B. Advance Prestige through Sharing of Best Practices
This strategic initiative aimed at showing the university community—internal and external—the teaching, learning and assessment practices that work with NHU’s student population. The original goals from the strategic plan focused on a research-based approach. In 2004, the initiatives were updated during the retreat and the practices that the university wanted to share were related to faculty committee work, community service, and work in local and state commissions. Additionally, it was decided to focus on applied research, having recognized academic programs, and developing an institutional portfolio to showcase NHU’s work.
The NHU, unfortunately, has to report that not much work has been done in this area since the strategic initiatives were redefined. Faculty members have been focusing on the teaching and advising aspect of their work and activities such as community service, committee service and participation in local, state or national commissions have not been included in their job expectations. Additionally, no venues have been provided to work on applied research that could document and showcase the work that is done at the university in diverse areas.
In terms of having recognized academic programs, the NHU has not focused on marketing a specific program. In general, the university has been recruiting students for all the academic programs it offers. However, none of the academic programs could be considered as recognized for its uniqueness. New programs granting associate degrees, single subject and special education teaching credential programs are now available at the university. However, the NHU recognizes that special efforts have to be done in order to get to the point of having a niche for successful programs targeting Hispanics and other minorities.
The NHU institutional portfolio is being developed to show the work done for the WASC re-affirmation of accreditation visits. Originally, the portfolio was conceived as the repository to showcase the work done at NHU. Some of the information that it should have contained was instead shared in different ways throughout the university. For example, the fact book, semester fact pages, and reports on retention, accreditation, and the strategic plan implementation were disseminated through our internal computer network using shared drives. The Director of Institutional Research is now working on the implementation of the portfolio and expects to have a structure that can be used beyond the accreditation visits to share and report work that is done in the academic, support and administrative areas at the NHU.
C. Integrate Inquiry into NHU’s Learning Communities
This strategic initiative aims at addressing issues on educational effectiveness through program quality, new academic initiatives, a student learning results system, faculty and staff development, and the strengthening of the university’s library. It is important to mention that in some areas there has been good progress and that in others, more work needs to be done.
1. Advance Program quality and recognition
One of the goals of the academic departments is to have programs that have quality and up-to-date curriculum. The curriculum committee, formed by NHU faculty, works on the revision and approval of new courses, updates to already existing courses and approval of new academic programs. During the past four years, the curriculum committee has been really active working with the different academic areas and the faculty senate in the development and revision of the curriculum. A summary of their work can be found in the Curriculum Committee Report (Appendix
1S - 1Scc - 1S ppt).
In spring 2005, the chairs of the academic departments and the director of the Office of Institutional Planning and Evaluation (OIPE) developed the Program Review Guidelines (Appendix
1T). Guidelines for program reviews from other universities were reviewed and after analyzing them, a philosophy and questions addressing NHU’s needs were developed. The guidelines provide the roadmap to develop the self-study for the program where several areas are addressed, and then give a guide to the role of external reviewers. After the guidelines were finished, they were revised by the Interim Provost and then they were presented to the faculty senate that approved them and adopted them. The guidelines included a calendar for the program reviews, too. The calendar was not followed due to changes in personnel and the need to address some other areas such as the high enrollment of freshmen received in the fall 2005 semester, and the first four program reviews have been delayed for a semester or more. In spring 2006, the Liberal Studies program had its program review (Appendix 1U). During the summer 2006, the Teacher Education and the Business Administration programs prepared their self-studies (Appendix 1V-1W). The current Interim Provost is reviewing them and once they gain her approval, they will schedule the visits for the fall 2006 semester.
In terms of student assessment, the academic programs have different ways to assess course-by-course progress: tests, research papers, group projects, presentations and the like. The bachelor degree programs have capstone courses where students prepare special projects and self-evaluations. The Teacher Education program has specific rubrics that need to be followed in order to fulfill the requirements of the credentialing agency. However, as of summer 2006, the academic programs have not developed the student assessment plans that aimed at analyzing the progress students do throughout their programs and that would also evaluate the fulfillment of the program objectives and goals.
Another area in which the NHU is far behind is in the integration of technology in the teaching and learning practices. In 2003, the university purchased a site license of WebCT and provided training to both adjunct and full-time faculty. Unfortunately, only a handful of faculty members used the software for a couple of semesters and then desisted from continuing using it. A survey was conducted by the OIPE among the faculty and asked them their opinion about the program. Those who answered the survey said the program was not user-friendly and that it was time-consuming to learn to use. Additionally, the university did not have a technology specialist who could help and guide the faculty in the use of the program, leaving them alone in their intentions to use it for their courses. In 2005, the Academic Council decided to stop paying for the license and as of summer 2006, there were no plans to find a replacement for that software. Isolated efforts have been done in courses for Teacher Education, but in general, the use of technology is not widespread.
Finally, another initiative that aimed at promoting the quality and program recognition was the development of feasibility studies to offer advanced degrees—especially master degrees—in some academic areas. This initiative has not been addressed at all. Instead, the undergraduate academic departments focused on opening Associate degrees in areas such as Mathematics and Science and in Early Childhood Education. The Teacher Education department, on the other hand, just developed a new teaching credential on Special Education and received approval from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) in September 2006.
2. Promote faculty and staff development
NHU has been giving internal training and professional development to its faculty during the past 3 years. In 2002, the post of Academic Operations Officer was created with the intent to have a direct contact with faculty and attend to their needs. Workshops on assessment, grading, writing across the curriculum and other topics have been addressed during these years (Appendix
1X). The attendance to the workshop varies, but in general it can be said that it has not been as successful as one could expect. Most of NHU’s faculty is under an adjunct contract—in the last 3 years, an average 71% of NHU’s faculty has been adjunct. Most of the times, because of schedule conflicts, they have not been able to attend the workshops loosing a good opportunity to learn about NHU’s practices in some of the areas mentioned above. Professional development, however, has been scarce. Outside trainers have not been brought and faculty members are rarely sent to conferences or outside workshops that would enhance their knowledge in their disciplines or in teaching/learning practices.
In terms of staff development, there have also been very few opportunities. The Human Resources Office does not organize campus wide training. Some personnel attend yearly conferences or workshops that pertain to their work disciplines. However, these individual efforts do not follow a staff development plan. The university is aware of this and will start looking into it.
3. Establish a student learning results system
As mentioned in a section above, the academic departments have not developed their student assessment plans as of summer 2006. Faculty members use different types of approaches to assess students such as tests, projects, presentations, group work and the like. However, the university does not have a system to assess students throughout their studies and address needs as they progress in their programs. Additionally, this initiative had as a goal the dissemination and use of new and up-to-date assessment practices. This has not been accomplished either. There has only been one workshop on assessment for faculty and that was done internally. The office of the Provost is aware of this problem and will start looking into it.
4. Advance academic initiatives
The office of the Provost and the academic departments have been mostly successful at addressing this strategic initiative. Almost all the goals in this area have been achieved and the programs that were proposed are in place.
The Teacher Credentialing program had its Single Subject Credential approved in 2004 and now offers seven single subject options. In addition to this program, the department had a Special Education Credential approved by CCTC in September 2006 and they expect to start enrolling students as early as October 2006 (see NHU General Catalog).
Another goal that has been fulfilled is that of becoming a CISCO certification site. A report on this program can be read in the CISCO Certification Program update (Appendix
1Y).
The other goal that was achieved was the completion of the changes to the Liberal Studies program to have it aligned with CCTC requirements. The changes were submitted in 2003 and approved in 2004, and consisted of aligning the program to the new requirements derived from new state legislation (SB2042).
Another successful goal was the program reviews. As explained in a section above, in 2005, the Faculty Senate approved the new program review guidelines (Appendix 1T). One program had its program review in Spring 2006 (Appendix 1U) and two more programs are working on having theirs done this fall 2006. Due to personnel changes in the program coordinating positions, some of the program reviews have been delayed. However, the office of the Provost expects to have all the program reviews done by the time the university needs to prepare its educational effectiveness presentation to WASC.
The last initiative, which is the establishment of the “3+2” Engineering program with San José State University (SJSU), has not been completely met. However, the NHU is still working on that and as it is explained in a section above (Appendix
1K), progress is being made.
5. Strengthen the role of the library
One of the recommendations that WASC gave to NHU in 2002 made reference to the fact that our library did not have quality resources or services available for students, and that the university needed to set a budget for library acquisitions beyond Title V monies. The library has grown and it has now good access to online databases. As the library report (Appendix
1Z) explains, it is still not at the level that it should be and more work needs to be done. Budgetary constraints are the main reason for the slow growth of the library collection and a stronger commitment from the university needs to be made in order to continue enhancing the library services. The library, however, has made some progress in some other areas—as the report describes—like having a technology specialist, more personnel and an active participation in the first year experience with an introductory course on information literacy. With a better budgetary commitment from the university, the library should be able to thrive in its new facilities.
6. Partner with the Latino College Preparatory Academy
Finally, the NHU considered it essential to work with the Charter High School (LCPA) it has in its facilities in order to develop a pipeline and enroll the high school graduates into the university’s academic offerings. In 2005, the first class from the LCPA graduated and 30 students enrolled as freshmen at the university. In 2006, 20 students have enrolled so far. The partnership, however, is not limited to enrolling students. Most teachers from the LCPA obtained or are obtaining their teaching credential at the NHU, high school seniors have enrolled in university level courses in computer science, English, and introduction to the university, and the NHU Library Director recently obtained a grant to purchase books for the high school and will set a special section for these students. Both the LCPA and the NHU will keep finding ways to work together and make the transition from high school to the university more seamless.
Influence of Strategic Planning in NHU’s Work
The strategic plan has had some influence in the way the university has worked in the past 3 years since the plan was approved although not at the level one could expect. As noted in the previous report on the implementation status, some initiatives were left aside in order to work towards the more pressing areas of recruitment, retention and revenue, and those other initiatives that would support the achievement of these three goals. The changes in leadership at different levels have also had an impact in the way the strategic plan has influenced NHU’s work since the new appointees had to understand what needed to be done in order to accomplish the strategic initiatives and this process usually took time.
In terms of financial planning, the strategic plan has had little impact. It was not until the last year that the finance department started to re-take the idea of using the strategic plan as the guide for financial planning and to determine financial needs and goals in terms of revenue, expenses and needs. The financial planning essay expands more on this topic.
In terms of educational quality, results are mixed. There are initiatives that been addressed and completed while there are others that have been left aside. Areas such as professional development for faculty, the development of an overall educational quality model and system, and an assessment system for students are some of the goals that have had little progress and that need more attention and planning. The constant changes in the Provost position have had a great impact on this area and on the continuity of strategic initiatives. During the next year more work needs to be done in terms of fulfilling both the recommendations WASC made in 2002 about educational quality and effectiveness and in the accomplishment of the strategic initiatives related to this area.
Lessons Learned
During these three years since the strategic plan was approved, there are lessons that the NHU has learned. One of the most important realizations is that the administrative and academic areas need to buy-in to the strategic plan process and implementation, and really adopt the plan as the guide for actions and work. Without a true commitment to the implementation of the plan, initiatives might not be easy or feasible to achieve. In addition, the university also realized that leadership at administrative and academic key positions needs to follow the commitment to have a clear path to achieve the goals set by the plan.
Another important lesson is that implementation requires constant monitoring and discussion that will allow key personnel to realize what resources are needed to achieve the goals set, what areas are successful, and what initiatives are falling behind in the implementation schedule. Furthermore, the strategic plan needs to be revisited every year by the university community for communication and revision purposes. In this way, everyone will know the status of the implementation, and important decisions on possible changes can be taken in consensus.
A year and a half after the strategic plan was approved, the university realized that the plan was very ambitious and that it needed to be re-focused. As a university, we underestimated the number of initiatives that the plan covered and the infrastructure—personnel, leadership, financial capacity, and time commitment—that was needed to sustain the type of work needed to accomplish all the strategic initiatives. In particular, financial capacity turned out to be the most important area that affected several of the initiatives and required immediate attention. The university realized that before other goals could be addressed, financial stability needed to be built.
Thus, after three years in the implementation of the strategic plan, the university continues learning from this strategic process and making changes as needed in order to achieve the goals set.
Areas of Success
The NHU has been partially successful in the implementation of its strategic plan. The changes in leadership at several administrative levels affected the initial implementation and course of action. Once the new administration selected the initiatives that it wanted to pursue, resources and personnel were selected to address these initiatives. As of summer 2006, the initiative on recruitment can be considered the most successful one, since there has been a clear increase in new students at the undergraduate, freshman level. The work in the areas of retention is starting to take shape and the constant work to obtain money for scholarships has given results in the last two years.
In the same way, some initiatives related to academic areas and educational effectiveness have been partially addressed and efforts are being focused on student assessment plans, new academic initiatives, retention efforts through various venues, and constant curriculum reviews.
The university so far has been successful at remembering that it has a strategic plan that aims at shaping its future actions, and at using several of its initiatives as the guide for its current work. Even when there have been many obstacles to achieve all the goals such as constant changes in personnel, lack of monetary resources and delays in the implementation of certain initiatives, the NHU is still trying to catch up and continue working under the strategic plan it developed almost four years ago.
Areas that Need Improvement
The NHU recognizes that there is room for improvement in several areas. The initiatives for building financial capacity and stability have been addressed but the results so far have fallen short of the goals. The university is well aware this requires more attention than any other initiatives since work in the administrative and academic areas—such as professional development, enhancement of the Library, research, recruitment and retention—require financial support to take place.
There has been no progress in the conceptualization and development of the quality assurance system and that has influenced also the development of student assessment plans and work on the educational quality recommendation made by WASC.
In terms of faculty, they have focused mainly on teaching and advising, and the university has not developed clear directives for them to do applied research, community service or other scholarly activities. Faculty also does not have professional development plans that could guide the training they receive or need throughout the year.
Another area that we have noticed needs improvement is the use of data for decision- making, which again is related to the lack of an established quality assurance system. Currently the university collects and summarizes a good amount of data (Fact Book), but little actions are taken based on that. Data is available through different venues; however, the university as a whole has not developed a data-based, decision-making mentality.
Technology is one more area in which the university is behind. The strategic plan did not have a specific initiative on technology, but implied that all the processes and initiatives would make use of technology in one form or another. So far, little has been accomplished in this area. Our technological infrastructure is not up-to-date and there has been little training in the use of new technological advances both in the academic and administrative areas. As of summer 2006, the university does not have a technology plan that would outline the goals in this area.
Finally, we have found through this self-study process that we need to have better communication among and between academic and administrative areas. Communication is not a strategic initiative; however, the lack of it has actually hindered the implementation of the strategic plan. The NHU, as an organization, needs to develop better communication channels to ease the implementation of initiatives and collaborative work.
Strategic Planning Expectations for 2008
NHU’s strategic plan was set for five years and it will end by 2008. In the two and a half years that are left, there are several areas that the NHU wants to address and goals that need to be achieved.
First of all, the university will continue working on those areas in which it is having success such as recruitment and enrollment. It will continue working on its retention efforts and finding new financial aid venues for students that do not qualify for state or federal aid. It will also continue working on academic initiatives and strengthening its existing programs to increase enrollment and graduation rates.
Financial capacity will continue being a priority beyond 2008. After experiencing the importance of having a solid and effective financial capacity during the past three years, and noticing the key role that it plays in the implementation of other initiatives and plans, the NHU will keep working on developing a more sustainable financial system. As presented in the financial planning essay, the university has developed a plan to obtain revenue and financial resources through a capital campaign, corporate donations, and contracts and grants. The NHU expects to obtain good results from these efforts and keep working on building financial capacity.
The development of a quality assurance system is a priority for next year. This initiative has not been addressed so far and the university has also noticed that the lack of such a system has affected educational quality areas such as student assessment plans, program reviews, faculty scholarly activities, evaluation, and the establishment of recognized academic programs. The development of a quality system will allow the NHU become a data-driven, decision-making organization that will take advantage of the information and resources it has available.
The enhancement of the library services will continue being a priority. So far, the development of the library collection has been hindered by the lack of financial resources. The university expects that through its financial plan, it will obtain more resources that can be used to develop this key area which in turn, will also strengthen our academic offerings. The library director will continue working on obtaining additional financial and information resources and on establishing solid communication with academic programs to ensure that students’ information needs are covered in order to succeed in their studies.
Finally, the NHU will address areas such as personnel professional development, the upgrading of its technological infrastructure, and the integration of technology into its teaching and learning activities. All these areas are important to continue the improvement of the university’s academic and support services. The university acknowledges that these areas have been left aside due to financial constraints, but wants to start addressing them and fulfill the goals established for these areas in the strategic plan.
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