Ensuring Successful Student Outcomes

Is TCNJ successfully serving its role as a bridge to graduate study? Do its transfer students graduate within an acceptable time frame? How do the knowledge bases of TCNJ students grow throughout their college experiences? To answer questions like these, as well as many others, the College established the Center for Institutional Effectiveness this fall.

Words by Tony Marchetti ’96, MA ’02

Is TCNJ successfully serving its role as a bridge to graduate study? Do its transfer students graduate within an acceptable time frame? How do the knowledge bases of TCNJ students grow throughout their college experiences? To answer questions like these, as well as many others, the College established the Center for Institutional Effectiveness this fall.

“Our aspiration to greatness requires that we continue to question and continue to work hard at improvement, ” President Gitenstein said in announcing the center’s formation to campus during her opening speech in September [Play Audio].

The center has already taken the lead in this questioning process, working with units from across the campus to design, perform, and communicate analyses of institutional data. This data will be used to enhance operations and student outcomes and to improve college services and programs.

The center is under the joint leadership of Beth Paul, interim provost, and Nadine Stern, vice president for information technology and enrollment support services. Ellie Fogarty, associate provost, serves as the center’s executive director. Paula Maas, director of assessment, is leading and coordinating student learning outcomes assessment.

Rather than being housed in any one department, the center is cross-divisional so that it has greater access to data from offices and programs across campus.

The first three initiatives that the center is working on are improving retention rates, improving the advising process, and assisting in the effort to better position the College, Fogarty said.