STUDENT AFFAIRS ANNUAL REPORT (2025-2026) 5 Holistic Wellness: Promoting cognitive, cultural, emotional, environmental, financial, physical, social, and spiritual wellness as critical components of student success. Inclusion and Sense of Belonging: Fostering a diverse and international community that includes, validates, recognizes, and respects all ethnicities, genders, sexualities, identities, abilities, cultures, and world views. Our work promotes “a learning environment that exposes students to and encourages exploration of a variety of ideological and political perspectives” (SD House Bill 1087) consistent with the SDBOR Opportunity for All Statement of August 2021. Engagement: Developing an engaged student body that creates an inclusive community, fully participates in the life of the university, connects classroom content to real-life situations, and integrates learning into their understanding of the world around them. Engaged students perform better academically, persist to graduation, and are more likely to remain connected to the university following graduation. Transitions: Welcoming and assisting students in the transition to college and Northern State University in ways that support the values and priorities of retention, persistence, engagement, and wellness. Message From the Dean of Students: Student Affairs continued to make meaningful progress during 2025-26 in support of student success, well-being, engagement, and institutional effectiveness. Through strong partnerships across campus, we expanded student support services, enhanced accessibility and wellness resources, strengthened campus safety initiatives, and implemented new tools to improve retention, graduation, and assessment efforts. This sixth edition of the Student Affairs Annual Report highlights the first year of our 2025-30 Strategic Plan. During that time, we achieved five KPIs and an impressive 34 key results, welcomed three new team members, and said goodbye to two valued colleagues. You'll also meet two graduating students whose stories remind us why this work matters. A final note for the critics, historians, and anyone who has read this far into my letter: this report marks my first significant use of AI in the annual report writing process. Copilot served as a tool for editing, summarizing information, and generating ideas. Whether AI becomes one of humanity's greatest innovations or greatest challenges remains to be seen, but it is already changing how we work, learn, and communicate. The opinions, mistakes, and questionable jokes, however, remain my own. Thank you for reading and for being part of the journey.
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