Vice Provost Earl Seaver addressed efforts to improve NIU’s graduation rates at Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

“Nationally, there’s a concern about graduation rates,” Seaver said. “Most legislators measure a school’s success by the number of students graduating.”

Seaver said NIU could be doing a better job of reaching out to its students to ensure their success.

A number of initiatives to improve student success have been implemented this year, Seaver said. These initiatives are meant to identify students who are struggling academically early on.

Seaver said these initiatives include evaluating the success rates of freshmen prior to orientation. Students with undecided majors are also being advised about the academic, social and emotional aspects of their life.

Seaver said students who are identified will receive the advising and tutoring needed to keep them in school. He also encouraged faculty to reach out to students struggling in their classes.

“We can’t move the meter on student success without the help of faculty,” Seaver said.

Members of the Faculty Senate were concerned about the accuracy of the evaluations done on students.

“Do you have a predictive indicator for motivation?” said Joseph Stephen, associate professor of mathematical sciences.

Seaver also said that MyNIU will become more personal for students. MyNIU will be personalized for each student based on statistics concerning them.

Also discussed at the meeting were the latest actions of the True North Campaign.

“As far as True North Campaign goes, they’ve met their goals,” said Nancy Castle, communicative disorders professor and member of the campaign.

Castle said the campaign is now looking for donations from faculty and staff to help raise more money for NIU.

“One hundred percent of faculty contributions will go to whatever they want it to go to,” Castle said.

Castle said she hopes faculty members will donate any amount of money.

“This is one way to deal with the issues we’re all concerned about,” Castle said.

True North is a non-profit organization that is contracted to raise money for NIU.

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