Student Success Through Academic Excellence

At UND our students and their success always come first. This success is best realized within an environment of academic excellence.

Academic excellence at UND means we support a strong educational foundation grounded in the liberal arts through its emphasis on broadening students experiences and promoting an eagerness for “learning to learn” from their first year on campus through graduation and beyond. An environment of academic excellence means students will be challenged to achieve their goals, including through experiential learning, service learning, and research opportunities.

When such experiences are paired with strong foundational courses, our students will be armed with the knowledge and skills needed to participate in, lead, and thrive in an ever-changing world. Undertaking an active effort to recruit, retain, and support innovative faculty members is critical to our students’ success. We need to support professional development, scholarly, and creative work thereby creating a robust intellectual community within and outside of the classroom. 

Achieving academic excellence also requires a conscious effort to strengthen and support our academic programs and to make strategic decisions about program development and expansion. Academic excellence means our students will graduate with the intellectual skills they need to thrive in whatever they choose to do after graduation and carry with them an enthusiasm for inquiry, creativity and innovation that will help them lead personally fulfilling and socially responsible lives.

Workgroup Co-Chairs

Workgroup Members

• Terry Brenner
• Tim Burrows
• Michael Herbert
• Gabe Kilzer
• Erin Lauckner
• Chelsea Mellenthin
• Marlene Miller
• Patrick O’Neill
• Jody Paulson
• Kay Powell
• Jenny Reichert
• Rebecca Summers
• Ryan Summers
• Jeff VanLooy
• Alfred Wallace

Workgroup Questions to Consider

1. How do we explore, refine, and prioritize strategies and solutions from the Taskforce on Higher Education at UND that promote Academic Excellence?
2. How do we foster academic excellence in all our programs while effectively utilizing traditional and distance-education delivery modalities?
3. How do we explore and promote interdisciplinary academic programs that span traditional disciplines?
4. How do we promote the scholarship of teaching and learning to enhance student success outcomes?
5. How do we help promote and increase UND’s endowed positions in order to help attract and retain outstanding teaching and research faculty?
6. Through experiential learning opportunities, how can we give every student an opportunity to explore career options that matches their choice of degree with the changing needs of industry, agency, and community partners?
7. How does UND provide experiences to develop creative, resilient, collaborative, and flexible graduates that will thrive in workforce?
8. How does UND instill an educational foundation in all our students that is essential for living an intellectually curious, personally fulfilling, and socially responsible life?
9. How do we leverage our infrastructure and technology to improve access to learning experiences and foster innovation in teaching, scholarship, and research?
10. How do we remain responsive to student and societal needs by providing an educational experience that prepares our graduates to be leaders in an increasingly interconnected and diverse global environment?
11. How do we identify which high-impact practices will be most effective in meeting programs’ goals and students’ educational needs?
12. How do we provide clear pathways to lifelong learning by expanding educational opportunities for non-traditional students and alumni?
13. How do we expand scholarship funding and availability? How do we strategically align current scholarships with access, achievement, equity, and completion as key goals? How do we ensure that we are providing affordable educational opportunities that are within reach for every qualified student?
14. How do we strengthen existing and develop new programs that support underrepresented students and ensure equitable access to academic resources and opportunities?
15. How do we regain a campus culture which values and supports teaching excellence?
16. How do we become a leader in terms of supporting diversity, equity and inclusion practices that lead to student success?
17. How do we best solidify, improve, and promote the curricular and co-curricular programs happening at UND to be ‘student-centered’ – keeping the success of the ‘whole-student’ as the main focus of our work?
18. How do we advance industry and community partnerships to provide quality educational opportunities and collaboration to satisfy rapidly evolving community and workforce needs?

Concepts, Areas and Ideas

The following concepts, areas and ideas were collected from university feedback and helped form this Workgroup. However, each Workgroup is encouraged to think holistically about their topic and expand these areas as part of their critical review.

• Liberal Arts
• Essential Studies
• Task Force on the Future of Higher Education
• HIPs
• Experiential Learning
• Internships
• Credit for Prior Learning
• Stackable Credentials
• Flexible Programs
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• Interdisciplinary Programs
• Infrastructure/Technology
• Diverse Learners
• Programs which anticipate the needs of future students
• First Year Student Experience

Meeting Minutes

• May 19
• June 2