Accountability Plan 2.0

Strategy 1.1.
Further hone our brand identity through a perception study to better understand NIU's reputation with specific audiences and implement recommendations to improve the overall brand perception and enrollment opportunities.

• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications

• Benchmark results with NIU’s 2016 and 2019 perception studies and benchmark with competitor institutions; implementation of recommended initiatives and strategies that will positively impact brand identity.

Summer 2023

Strategy 1.2.
Amplify Huskie pride to support NIU and the NIU Foundation in our efforts to demonstrate and celebrate the benefits of an NIU education and the successes and contributions of our students, faculty, staff and alumni.

• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications
• VP University Advancement
• VP Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development
• VP Research and Innovation Partnerships

• Increased NIU Foundation fundraising
• Creation of formal brand ambassador programs and marketing advisory groups.
• Measure and increase promoter scores for students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Fall 2023

Strategy 1.3.
Improve the tracking of NIU graduates’ career outcomes and leverage outcomes data to better represent the value of an NIU education to key audiences.

• Executive VP and Provost
• VP University Advancement
• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications
• College Deans

• Development of alumni career and social mobility outcomes data sets.
• Integration with promotional materials and key messaging as a strong value proposition.

Fall 2023

Strategy 2.1.
Utilizing new and existing partnerships, enroll a new student population that mirrors the demographics of our region through increased completion of admission application files, an improved yield experience for admitted students, tailored communication plans, development of signature recruitment and yield events and revised transfer credit procedures.

• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications
• Executive VP and Provost
• College Deans

• Increased new first-year enrollment by 1% to 3% each year (2,285 in fall 2021).
• Maintain enrollment of new undergraduate students with prior credit between 1,400 to 1,500 each year (1,492 in fall 2021).
• Maintain new graduate student enrollment (988 in fall 2021) and new international student enrollment (743 in fall 2021). Reevaluate enrollment projections after the next permanent Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Vice President for International Affairs.

Fall 2023

Strategy 2.2.
Launch a campaign to reenroll NIU stop-out students, including a case management approach, new student support services, and promotion of existing and expanded options of online degree-completion programs, providing flexibility for returning students.

• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications
• Executive VP and Provost
• College Deans

• Increased number of reenrolled students who previously stopped out of NIU (336 in fall 2021).
• Maintain enrollment in fully online programs (1,434 in fall 2021). Reevaluate enrollment projections after an assessment of COVID-19 impact on adult online enrollment. 

Spring 2023

Strategy 2.3. 
Provide enhanced financial advising initiatives to students, such as multiyear financial planning, along with robust training and education to campus partners on Student Financial Advising Services, to support enrollment, retention and completion initiatives.

• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications
• Executive VP and Provost

• Reduced number of students who cannot register due to account balance holds.
• Lower student loan debt
• Increased number of students with multiyear financial plans.
• Increased FAFSA filing rate prior to disbursement.

Fall 2022

Strategy 2.4.
Using multiyear financial modeling and a comprehensive review of NIU’s scholarship/waiver awarding philosophies, optimize the efficacy of all institutional aid funding (including identifying and piloting innovative aid programs) to attract students and ensure their success.

• Executive VP and Provost
• VP University Advancement
• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications College Deans
• VP Finance and Administration

• Completion of multiyear, longitudinal financial model; ongoing assessment of the alignment between institutional aid, enrollment (new and returning students) and net tuition revenue projections.
• Completed review of how institutional aid is awarded; implement newly identified initiatives and strategies.

Fall 2023

Strategy 3.1.
Provide equitable programs, processes and support networks that ensure students transition successfully into the Huskie experience.

• Executive VP and Provost
• VP Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications

• A fully implemented and comprehensive transition model that is collaborative and seamless for all incoming students spanning from pre-college to the end of the first year.
• Established process to consistently evaluate prior learning and transfer credit to ensure successful transition to NIU.
• Fully deployed and integrated Huskie First Survey to identify student needs early on to make connections to campus support resources

Summer 2023

• VP Student Affairs
• Executive VP and Provost
• VP ADEI

• All students have an academic, career and financial plan within their first two years at NIU.
• Completed HLC Quality Initiative to decrease DFWU rates and ultimately eliminate equity gaps in courses, starting with gateway courses.
• Expand effective and inclusive teaching resources and professional development programs available to all faculty, instructors and teaching assistants.
• Implement an annual communication plan to encourage students to participate in cocurricular engagement programs and opportunities.
• Provide developmental, holistic and high-touch advising experience for all students that is consistent across all colleges.
• Develop a comprehensive academic student success model that supports all students’ needs. 
• Create and fully implement a broad-based, student engagement program that provides a curriculum for leadership development that enables students to provide effective management of their organizations with fair and equitable implementation of appropriate university policies.
• Communicate and implement an expanded DEI, social justice and belonging plan to promote inclusive community building initiatives that engage NIU faculty, staff, students and the community.

• VP Student Affairs
• VP ADEI

• Ensure timely student access to a variety of mental and emotional health-needs services, including the several modalities being used today and which reflect the diversity of our student population.
• Develop trauma-informed programs and restorative justice practices that are responsive to the evolving wellness and physical health and safety needs of our students.
• Implement the Campus Center for Truth, Transformation and Racial Healing plan.