Student Affairs Commitment to Evaluating Student Outcomes

As leaders in higher education, we have an obligation to spend our time to achieve the institutional standards and expectations set for our students.  Assessment and evaluation are the tools that allow us to look inward to determine how our programs change students in positive ways, and where our efforts can be improved.  Knowing what happens to undergraduates as a result of multiple interventions in their co-curricular lives, student affairs professionals are better able to design programs and facilities to achieve the best educational results.

The Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at Oakland University is committed to a working environment based on current “best practices” about assessment. To that end, every unit throughout the division revisits its mission and the core work functions as part of an annual strategic planning process and adjusts programs and services according to what’s been learned about students from assessment activities and program evaluations.   In all our assessment activities, we emphasize that every professional has responsibility to:

• be curious about the experience of the students who interface with our programs
• collect and interpret data at least once annually to strengthen programs
• show evidence that our resources actually result in positive changes in students
• share results with colleagues

- Mary Beth Snyder
  Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management