Student_Affairs_Annual_Assessment_Report_2021

4 5. Student responses that Northern as an institution has contributed to “Developing or clarifying a personal code of values and ethics”, “Solving complex real-world problems”, “Understanding people of other backgrounds” and “Being an informed and active citizen” are lower than our peers (significant difference) and declining. Efforts should be made to help students develop in these areas and may be related to item 3 where students don’t feel an institutional emphasis on “attending events that address important social, economic, and political issues.” 6. Northern participated in a system-wide administration of the SkyFactor Benchwork’s Student Campus Climate, Safety and Sexual Assault Assessment in 2020. This is the only currently known climate and safety survey of students. The response rate of 4.1 produced interesting by unreliable information. Northern should re-administer the climate survey again soon, make greater efforts to receive a larger and more representative sample, and use the data to improve campus safety. Alternatively, the ARC3 Campus Climate Survey would produce more sexual misconduct specific information to inform efforts to stop, prevent, and remedy sexual harassment at Northern. 7. Female students seek counseling services in larger numbers than male students even when compared to the total population. Efforts should be made to encourage more help seeking behaviors in our male student population. 8. Counseling Services is experiencing a higher than expected “no show” rate or has a small number of students with far more appointments than the average student (super users). Efforts will be made to ensure efficient distribution of clinical resources, the new scope of practice is applied, and to gather more data to understand this challenge. 9. Understanding the impact of HOWL will be critical to our retention and student transition efforts. Beginning summer 2021, students will be better coded to allow additional review by Institutional Research. 10. The SkyFactor Benchworks assessment tool will be administered during the 2021-2022 academic year to identify additional efforts to improve the residential experience in the next Student Affairs and/or university strategic plan. 11. Our current housing offerings are not graduate student friendly. Graduate student housing will be reviewed in the next Student Affairs and/or university strategic plan. 12. No information was available regarding student demographics for those who utilized Avera Student Health during the 2020-2021 academic year. A new system will be created to enable the reporting of student demographics for the 2021-2022 academic year. STUDENT AFFAIRS AT NORTHERN STATE UNIVERSITY is comprised of the Avera Student Center, Avera Student Health, Campus Safety, Counseling Center, Dean of Students Office, Disability Services, Homecoming, Multicultural Student Affairs, New Student Programs (HOWL & Wolf Pack Welcome), Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, Prevention Services, Residence Life and Dining Services, Student Government Association, Student Involvement and Leadership, Student Organizations, Summer Camps and Conferences, and Title IX. ENGAGED LEARNERS: We seek engaged learners who create inclusive communities, fully participate in the life of the university, connect classroom content to real-life situations, and integrate learning into their understanding of the world around them. Engaged students perform better academically, persist to graduation,