My grandfather said, “agua es la vida,” which translates to “water is life.” It is a crucial factor in maintaining what we possess. As a Student Affairs Assessment professional, I use my farming background daily; with precision and conscientiousness, I work tirelessly to build future leaders who…
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We have received a variety of nominations for our new Board for 2023. As an organization built to serve you, we ask for 10 minutes of your time to read this email and engage with our election process to:
The SAAL Board is grateful to the community for their engagement during the past few months. It has been an exciting time as we make progress on the implementation of a new strategic plan, evaluating and updating the board structure, and aligning the bylaws with our future direction. While the bylaw…
Over the last several weeks, we have shared with our members and partners the strategic planning process that SAAL has engaged in over the last few years. As we launch a new organizational structure and re-align our purpose and goals with the current needs of student affairs assessment professionals…
The single strongest element of Student Affairs Assessment Leaders is the people that make up our organization. People are our greatest resource.
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The talent, curiosity, commitment and engagement of our commun…
One of the beautiful things about strategic and assessment planning is translating challenges into opportunities.
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The aspirations of our members and the challenges of our board have translated into three strategic focus areas and objectives. As you rea…
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Each of us has grown, evolved and learned from the changes influencing our personal and professional lives over the past few years. At times, these changes were planned, but many were not. Looking to the future for our organization and community, the SAAL boa…
This blog provides a summary of the data analysis and results from the 2022 open course that ran February – April 2022. Reporting this year resulted in 166 total pages (!) opening with a 5-page executive summary and followed by reports for the Welcome Survey/User Profile, Quiz Results, A…
As an assessment professional for the past five years, I have had the opportunity to experience several assessment cycles. We use the following assessment cycle visual to describe our efforts and the progress we hope to make on our campus.
When I first described the assessment cycle, it was t…
As we find ourselves in the month of May, it’s officially been one month since the 2022 SAAL open course ended. At the conclusion of the course, instructors typically gather to reflect on how the course went this year, spend the early summer reviewing course data, and then strategizing for course ch…
Four months into 2022, if you asked me to pick SAAL’s one word for the year, it would undoubtedly be “evolution”. Student Affairs Assessment Leaders is 14 years old this year. Right now, we cautiously approach the end of this pandemic, continue to be in the midst of a racial justice pandemic,…
With our fifth year of the open course in the books, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the outcomes and results of the course. While these are summary data, you can see the full reports/analyses on our open course data page. I’ll also speak to some of the exciting changes we have pl…
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Due to social distancing practices and travel restrictions, I found myself at home with a wealth of free time over the past year. Some of this time was occupied by exploring vario…
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Having spent six years working in the field of student affairs, I still find myself feeling like a “new” professional at times. There is so much to learn, and at times, I feel like I am not sure what…
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For many in higher education, summer is often a time of reflection, a time to look back on the previous academic year and identify successes and areas for growth. The assessment of the previous year …
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In the Fall of 2019, during the Covid-19 pandemic, I began teaching an online course for first-year, first-generation students. Along with most universities across the country…
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To me, student affairs assessment has always been about asking questions. “What is the purpose of our work? How do we know we’re making a difference for our students? How are we im…
Image Credit: Elon University's Visual Experiential Transcript
As Student Affairs professionals, we know the importance of demonstrating and assessing student learning. Many institutions use tools such as co-curricular transcripts to help students document their experiences. The curr…
