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American Dream Grant. Northwest was the first university in the country to offer a grant, The American Dream Grant, to low-income students; the grant provides tuition, room and board, textbooks, and a laptop computer for students’ first two years. The goal of this program is to improve access to higher education and increase the college going rate for low-income students.
Missouri Academy. The Missouri Academy is a two-year, early-entrance-to-college, residential program that matches the level, complexity and pace of the curriculum with the readiness and motivation of high performing high school students.
Building Bridges. The Building Bridges Program, which is an institutional Strategic Initiative (SI), is a an outgrowth of the relationship between education faculty at Northwest and the public schools of the Northwest region to, in part, study the high school curriculum and raise the bar/expectations for high school completion. It includes work with standards, the new competencies required by Missouri law, and syllabi for entrance into freshman level college work. Additionally, the program is designed to create increased communication through collaborative relationships between secondary and post-secondary faculty, staff, and administrators so that students’ transition from high school to college is successful.
Laptop Program and Electronic Campus. The institutional objective of the Electronic Campus and the Laptop Computer program is to support the educational Key Quality Indicator associated with helping students to prepare for living in an increasingly electronic world.
Center for Information Technology in Education. The primary objective of the Center for Information Technology in Education (CITE) is to facilitate the enhancement of student learning through the use of technology.
Student Employment Program. The Student Employment Program supports Northwest Missouri State University by coordinating efforts to provide students with educational employment opportunities with a career-pathing training component matching increasing motivation and skills with higher paying student employment positions.
Textbook Services. The Textbook Services Office coordinates all aspects of the textbook rental program, in which Northwest provides the primary textbooks for most of the undergraduate courses.
Enhanced Freshman Seminar. This program (known also as the “Assist Program”) provides at-risk freshmen with services designed to help them better understand the purposes of higher education and standards of academic excellence. Program participants are aided in their transition from high school to college by attending weekly meetings with peer mentors who provide guidance and recommendations for making the best use of institutional resources. Additionally, mentors assist them in creating and maintaining the life-long learning strategies that can help minimize anxiety and promote the development of positive attitudes.
Outreach. Because of Outreach’s constant movement closer to our external constituents, Outreach has the ability to systematically scan news, events, and trends to understand what compelling forces affect higher education so we can effectively respond. Outreach is critical with regard to supporting graduate programming, alternative certification for teacher education, and dual credit.
Athletics. Our institutional objectives in athletics focus on the academic success of those who participate in athletics, the competitive success of our teams, the fan interest and support that are demonstrated, and the expectation of a total athletics program that is administratively sound.
Extracurricular Student Development/Programming. The area of Student Development and Campus Programming falls to multiple departments on campus. The objective is to enhance each student’s personal and social development on campus.
Residential Life. Residential Life has two distinct objectives. The first is to provide a safe, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing environment in a cost effective manner. The second equally important objective is to support students in their personal and social development as they transition from their parent’s home to life at the university to graduation.
International/Intercultural Center. The Intercultural International Center (IIC) provides specialized services to specific populations. The IIC is comprised of the English as a Second Language Program, International Affairs, Minority Affairs, and Study Abroad. The IIC is a service-based office that has incorporated and leveraged student learning outcomes into its core processes as a means to improve overall campus climate.
Missouri Arboretum. Recognized as the State of Missouri Arboretum by legislation in August 2006, the Missouri Arboretum—located throughout the campus grounds—grows trees, shrubs, and herbaceous and other types of plants for scientific and educational purposes. We provide a quality learning and living atmosphere, as well as attractive, functional areas that offer educational, recreational, and relaxing settings.
Early Alert System. The Office of Advisement serve as a clearing house for faculty and staff to report any student they believe is having a difficult time either academically, socially, or personally. The objective of this program is to be proactive by intervening early to address potential problems that might interfere with students’ success. The program is a collaborative effort between many student service areas on campus.
Adoption of Baldrige Criteria as a Form of Self Assessment. As part of Northwest’s ongoing quality journey, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Excellence was formally adopted as the institutional self-assessment model in 1991. This action reflects our ongoing commitment to continuous quality improvement in everything we do.
Internal grants. The Faculty Research Committee is responsible for awarding internal grant funding for projects proposed by faculty and professional and support staff under two categories: Faculty Research (faculty only) and Applied Research/Projects. Faculty Research projects provide funding for research projects that have a significant impact upon the profession, university, or another audience. Applied Research and Projects provide funding for projects that have a significant impact on the students and/or community members served by Northwest Missouri State University. Another significant source of internal funding is the Culture of Quality funding. The purpose of the Culture of Quality for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning grant is to support and enhance the improvement of teaching and learning at Northwest. The Culture of Quality program is an open process whereby all university units may submit proposals that are directed toward the improvement of teaching and learning within the framework of the mission of the university and the specific department or area. This approach has the advantage of integrating funding of special initiative projects with the ongoing strategic planning process. The University’s Educational and General budget is the funding source for both of these grant programs.
Horace Mann Laboratory School and Early Care and Education Laboratory Center. The Horace Mann Laboratory School and Early Care & Education Laboratory Center provides a clinical experience for pre-service teachers and a diverse, interactive, and inviting learning environment for children ages three through sixth grades. Horace Mann Laboratory School is a kindergarten – sixth grade school with a population of approximately 130 students.
Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The Northwest Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) will combine academic and entrepreneurial resources in a synergistic way that fosters the growth and success of tenant businesses, advances the educational development of our students, and provides opportunities for research for our faculty, while contributing to the overall economic development of our broader community. The Center will pursue its mission by: 1) Helping to reinvigorate rural communities with its small business development and assistance programs; 2) Employing the place stewardship model (Stepping Forward as Stewards of Place, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, 2002 and 2006) emphasizing sustainable regional economic development; and 3) Linking the university’s commitment to economic development and its core academic mission.
Knowledge sharing (myNorthwest). Northwest has officially launched the Luminis portal, myNorthwest, which is software designed to make easier the sharing of knowledge both horizontally and vertically across the institution.
As described in category 8, the Seven Step Planning Process (SSPP) is the means by which departmental planning and process improvement and innovation occur. This begins each September with the Fall meeting of the Strategic Planning Council (SPC), which is comprised of faculty, staff, students, key suppliers/partners/collaborators, and community members; the SPC reviews and refines the mission and vision statements. It also conducts an environmental scan and uses external analyses to outline strategic initiatives. Any refinements are then shared with the campus community via the Leadership System for further comment (e.g., via orientations, annual department/unit visits, Cabinet, Deans Council, Academic Chairs Council, Faculty Senate, Support Staff Council, Student Senate). Departmental planning using the SSPP requires linkage to these foundational statements. Departments define their missions and describe how they help achieve the vision, espouse values, and link measures/results to the university KQIs.
Cross-functional teams. Northwest uses cross-functional teams to manage processes that affect multiple departments/units. One such example is the Computer Users’ Group. This team is comprised of mid-level managers or operational-level staff who are responsible for managing our student information systems such as Banner and others. This team meets twice a month to evaluate, share, and find solutions to data system issues that are current and relevant to our students. The goal of the team is to provide students and other stakeholders with timely and accurate information in a self-service environment. Through the design of this cross-functional team we avoid potential problems when one unit makes a change that could negatively impact another unit. The ultimate test as to whether a system should be changed is “will our students and other stakeholders be better served by making this change?” This team also is responsible for ensuring our data complies with all federal and state policies, which can contradict the earlier question. This team has been successful in making several changes to our system such as implementing a Third Party Access program that allows our students to grant access to their online academic, financial, and disciplinary information to a third party (e.g., a parent).
Missouri Academy. The Missouri Academy complements and supports the processes and systems for Helping Students Learn in the following ways:
Building Bridges. The Building Bridges Program links directly to our college success/student success goals and to the focus on Freshman success, to reducing the time to graduation, and to our goals to continuously improve the college-going rates and student performance. Success in this program should increase levels of Freshman success, reduce remedial and non-credit coursework, cost and frustration, and will ultimately result in increased levels of student performance in the classroom and on standardized measures of success. Enlisting the P-12 schools and their students/parents in this work early (in middle and high school) will lead to greater performance at all levels of secondary and post-secondary schooling.
Laptop Program and Electronic Campus. Explicit objectives include the development of in-depth competencies in using word processing, spreadsheets, databases, email, and web-based tools. The Electronic Campus and Laptop Computer programs provide the electronic resources that students, faculty, and staff use daily. Nearly all Northwest classes require students to use a broad range of computer knowledge and abilities. The Electronic Campus and Laptop Computer programs not only provide comprehensive electronic learning resources but they provide a level playing field for each student and faculty member whatever their financial status. Operationally, the Electronic Campus provides hundreds of web-centric applications, a high-speed fiber optics network and, for each faculty member, a tablet computer, which is updated every three years. The Laptop Computer program provides a professional grade notebook computer, refreshed every three years, to every full-time student. These systems provide a homogeneous electronic network of hardware, software, and courseware (e.g., eCollege) that is extremely cost efficient to support and very easy to use. The seamless computing systems are understood by the faculty and their expectations for students’ use of technology are high.
Student Employment Program. Students must go through an application, interviewing, and hiring process when seeking employment within the Student Employment Program. This process allows students the opportunity to learn appropriate application and interviewing techniques in preparation for their job searches after graduation. Student employment experiences enhance the college experience by providing them with skills that will prepare them for the workforce. The Student Employment Program also includes a Career Pathing Program for all student employees. Human Resources provides student employees with various personal and professional development opportunities throughout the trimester. A student who participates in this program attends three sessions each trimester, completes a year of service, and has a one-on-one satisfactory performance evaluation; the student then is eligible for a pay raise. This program encourages student employees to personally and professionally develop within their student employment positions and prepare as well for future careers.
Enhanced Freshman Seminar. This program provides at-risk freshmen with services designed to help them better understand the purposes of higher education and standards of academic excellence. Students develop personal plans to understand and assume responsibility for their own university experience. Course content provides skills necessary to make the most of the university experience, including study skills, time management, and stress management; information about general education requirements and academic programs and advisement and career exploration; and an introduction to campus and community resources, including cultural and extracurricular events.
Athletics. The academic success of those who participate in athletics is measured in graduation rates, eligibility, and retention rates and the grade-point averages of each team.
Horace Mann Laboratory School and Early Care and Education Laboratory Center. The Horace Mann Laboratory School and Early Care & Education Laboratory Center enhance the teacher training and the child care programs in many ways. There is a strong link between the clinical experiences and student success in course work and in their early performance in their chosen professional career. Pre-service teachers are better prepared for student teaching and have a better experience. Northwest students are better prepared and are more successful in their first years of teaching.
Through the clinical experiences in Horace Mann Laboratory School and the Early Care & Education Laboratory Center, those involved display better abilities in problem-solving, critical/creative thinking, and communication skills. Because of the technology available in the laboratory school, the pre-service teachers also are very knowledgeable of the use of technology in the elementary classroom. Pre-service teachers use technology for planning and also implement the use of technology in lessons and have the elementary students creating Power Points and other technology created projects for various units of study. Horace Mann Laboratory School has served the teacher training programs since the start of the normal school in 1905 and continues to support and enhance these programs. The Early Care & Education Laboratory Center is in its primary years but gives the same support to the appropriate programs as the laboratory school and will for many years to come.
Extracurricular Student Development/Programming. Our distinctive objective relating to co-curricular programming complements our goal of “helping students learn” by recognizing the development and learning that take place outside the classroom setting. In addition to knowledge gained through academic coursework, Northwest recognizes our role in developing the whole student. One of our educational KQI’s is the Personal/Social Development of students. Being a part of a team, group, or club allows students to explore and clarify their leadership characteristics and values.
International/Intercultural Center. Each distinctive service objective directly supports students’ learning by providing non-native speakers of English, students of color, students wishing to study abroad, international students, non-traditional students, and our Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered community with support and services to help them achieve academic goals – Mentors Over Retention program is an excellent example. Additionally, work of the administrators in the IIC to promote diversity/ social justice/ multicultural education/ intercultural competency is exemplified in part through the expanded use of the Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI) to showcase our desire to help students learn. Beginning this year, the IDI will be used in select multicultural classes in the General Education requirement, as well as for training Freshman Seminar instructors. With the rich feedback provided by the IDI, we expect a more vibrant classroom and campus climate in classrooms and work spaces and, over time, on the campus as a whole.
This example, and other similar initiatives not mentioned here, showcases how the IIC plays a role in promoting student learning. Overall, the IIC believes these learning outcomes increase the institution’s ability to provide a positive learning environment for all students. As Carini, Kuh and Zhao (2005) assert, if rooted in appropriate pedagogy, the presence of “learning environments that promote and value diversity, as well as intentionally exposing students to multiple and sometimes competing perspectives that challenge previously unexamined assumptions … can promote high levels of intellectual and personal development” (p. 209).
Residential Life. Residential Life supports the academic mission of the institution by creating living and learning environments that complement the academic goals. Residential Life provides student staff members who deliver academic, computer and multicultural resources to all residential students. Additionally Residential Life connects to the Personal/Social Development of students by creating living environments that match the facility to a specific programmatic goal. Requiring freshmen to live on campus and have a roommate provides a tremendous opportunity to learn to live with others and enhance communication skills.
Adoption of Baldrige Criteria as a Form of Self Assessment. The use of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria as our institutional self-assessment framework has identified the delivery of education (and most specifically undergraduate general education) as our core business. This orientation drives the way we look at everything we do: Helping Students Learn is the primary job of everyone on campus. For units and individuals who are not directly involved in the delivery of instruction, emphasis is given to the best means of providing support for that activity. As a result, everyone takes pride in whatever they do to support student learning, or to support other individuals and units that support student learning.