Goal Statement:
Enhance the student experience through innovative engagement, holistic support, and
a vibrant student-centered spirit.
Goals & Objectives
Nurturing Student Experience
Objectives:
Strengthen and celebrate the authenticity of our small-campus culture through increased focus on student participation and satisfaction.
- Access student programming interests across various demographics at the Rapid City, Ellsworth, and Spearfish campuses.
- Establish a Leadership certificate program.
- Increase student participation in the NSSE survey.
- Improve the training and the number of campus staff members who support student engagement.
Enhance the student residential experience through engaging residential curriculum and through scheduled infrastructure and facility upgrades.
- Create and maintain compelling Living Learning Community options for our students.
- Develop a sustainable replacement schedule for the furniture and fixtures in each residence hall.
- Improve the Student Union facilities and program offerings.
Implement student-centered policies, procedures, and services to simplify all non-academic student-campus transactions.
- Improve campus safety by fully staffing the Public Safety Office.
- Assess and streamline all student-facing policies and procedures.
- Revamp the current bias-response system.
- Increase the quality, clarity, and timeliness of campus communications.
Improve our mental and physical wellness services targeting reduced wait times for counselling and enhanced healthcare service partnerships.
- Support student mental health through bolstering mental health offerings and programming.
- Hire Counseling Center Director
- Explore other mental health support offerings
- Develop Programs and Services through a partnership with the Lost & Found Organization, including the peer mentoring program and mental health triage training for faculty and staff.
- Increase JacketHub training and usage campus wide for early intervention(s).
- Explore partnership with Spearfish Rec Center to offer classes at discounted rate.
- Assess needs/wants of student participants
Foster a rich array of career- and leadership-development opportunities for our students.
- Assist students as they explore and identify their academic majors.
- Increase internship opportunities in the Black Hills region.
- Offer robust leadership training for students.
- Improve student readiness for job searches and career planning.
Fulfill the student-focused goals of the strategic enrollment plan finalized in April 2021.
- Launch an expanded Career Center.
- Complete the transition to a professional advising model.
- Improve tutoring and supplemental instruction.
- Develop work-study internships throughout the University.
| Objective | Metric | 2028 Target |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Scores | >50% of students statisfied or extremely satisfied |
| 2 | Living-Learning Communities (LLCs) | Launch 2 new LLCs |
| 3 | National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Scores | >50% of students statisfied or extremely satisfied |
| 4 | Lost & Found Resilience Scores | Year-over-year improvements after initial scoring in 2023 |
| 5 | National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Scores | >50% of students statisfied or extremely satisfied |
| 6 | Fall New-Student Cohort Size | 500 new freshman |
Evaluating and Developing Academic Programs
Goal Statement:
Prepare students for lifelong success through academic experiences that provide the
knowledge and skills to make a difference in their communitites and add value to the
world.
Objectives:
Improve academic quality through increased support for faculty excellence in teaching and scholarship and heightened attention to program accreditations.
- Encourage, evaluate, and reward excellence in teaching.
- Monitor all current and potential academic accreditations and their status.
- Increase faculty professional development resources in support of high-quality teaching and ongoing scholarly work.
- Launch the Center for Faculty Innovation.
Strengthen our academic infrastructure to support and measurably improve student success in persistence, retention, and degree completion.
- Promote effective faculty mentoring and stronger student-faculty relationships.
- Blend adjunct and term faculty members into the academic fabric of the University and recognize them for their vital work.
- Fill vacant professional advisor positions and train them with input from their respective academic units and from athletics.
- Equip faculty members with the confidence to serve students with different backgrounds and experiences in their programs and the skills to do this well.
- Pursue additional grants to support student persistence, retention, or degree completion.
Enhance the University's economic, social, and environmental impact in western South Dakota and beyond through meaningful investments in academic program review, revision, and development.
- Pursue several new or substantively modified graduate, major, minor, or certificate programs.
- Align our curricula with current and emerging workforce needs in western South Dakota.
- Increase student opportunities through greater engagement with regional businesses, community groups, government agencies, and individual citizens.
- Develop the Opportunity Center into a visible and flourishing asset for our students.
Promote our academic distinctiveness to support stronger student recruitment and success, particularly through high-impact learning opportunities.
- Broaden the use of experiential learning or other high-impact practices across our courses.
- Grow the number of educational opportunities for students through service learning, community projects, international studies, Honors work, and student academic and professional organizations.
- Publicize distinctive examples of highly engaging faculty members and successful student outcomes through our marketing and recruiting efforts.
- Increase faculty scholarship through peer-to-peer mentoring and stronger engagement with the Office of Sponsored Programs.
- Improve faculty contributions to the student-recruitment process.
| Objective | Metric | 2028 Target |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Teaching-related professional development workshops New program accreditations |
25% of faculty attending annually At least one new accredditation |
| 2 | 4 and 6-year graduation rates | 30% and 45%, respectively |
| 3 | New or modifed academic programs | Finalize at least 4 such programs |
| 4 | Experiential/high-impact practices (HIPs) Examples of engaging faculty and successful student outcomes |
HIPs in 100% of general education courses Release at least 12 stories per academic year |
Building On a Supportive Work Environment
Goal Statement:
Promote a culture of excellence that will ensure pride in the insitituation and retain
employees.
Objectives:
Enhance our employees’ sense of value and job satisfaction.
- Audit and align job descriptions with the work currently performed by each employee.
- Create benchmarks for future compensation adjustments based on an assessment of our salaries relative to external standards.
- Monitor employee satisfaction to improve policy, process, communication, and culture.
Invest in our employees by strengthening orientation, professional development, and advancement opportunities.
- Improve the orientation process, training, and support for new employees according to their specific needs.
- Advance the professional development of each and every employee.
- Employ a process for continual evaluation and improvement of support initiatives.
Recognize and honor employees for excellence.
- Revitalize employee awards events and create other recognitions.
- Implement a system of incentives for employees to support the University.
- Communicate campus success stories to the university community and the wider public.
Cultivate effective leadership by providing supervisors with excellent training and support.
- Evaluate the work environment of each division or office using appropriate tools.
- Support supervisors with mentoring and leadership-development training for their specific needs.
- Generate a robust, recurring set of workshops focused on improving productivity, satisfaction, and well-being.
Foster a healthy work environment.
- Solicit, review, and implement employee recommendations for improvement within and among campus entities.
- Make full use of the Young Center to promote healthy physical activity among employees.
- Partner with Sodexo to align initiatives for dietary health with campus food options.
| Objective | Metric | 2028 Target |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New survey of employee satisfaction | Improve the satisfied/very satisfied responses by 10% each year |
| 2 | New onboarding process for employees | Reviewed as successful by survey of new hires |
| 3 | Recognition of exemplary exployee performance | Increase the number of mentions at campus events |
| 4 | Formalized training on leadership, communication, and supervisor skills | ≥50% of all supervisors |
| 5 | Employee participation in the Young Center wellness opportunities | 25% increase from 2023 baseline |
Evaluting & Developing a Revised Brand Identity
Goal Statement:
Extend the reach and reputation of the University by employing effective marketin
and communication strategies.
Objectives:
Create a consistent brand that captures the University’s identity and distinctive geographic setting.
- Complete a branding audit and establish a timeline and benchmarks for needed changes.
- Draft branding guidelines for all university communications and training for employees on their use.
- Update all digital and printed materials to conform to new standards.
- Partner with the City to promote our visual brand throughout Spearfish.
Employ effective marketing and communication campaigns efficiently.
- Collect and use data appropriately to inform our marketing strategy.
- Determine target audiences for all materials, ensuring that the perspectives of students and prospective students—at BH-Rapid City, Ellsworth AFB, Main Campus, and online—guide these initiatives.
- Revise policies and procedures for generating media materials effectively.
- Organize the website to serve internal and external users.
- Design and launch a marketing plan specifically for recruitment and enrollment.
- Define and implement a social media strategy.
Communicate the purpose, character, and story of the institution to alumni and external stakeholders.
- Provide the local press with stories about student and faculty success.
- Produce a President’s Newsletter to highlight campus projects, accomplishments, and stories of interest.
- Improve regular communication with alumni and families from the University as a whole.
- Guide communication between specific areas of the University and their constituents.
- Mobilize student efforts to generate digital, traditional, and social media content with a student focus.
| Objective | Metric | 2028 Target |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brand identity standards document Implement training curriculum for marketing |
Document completed and in use Curriculum completed and in use |
| 2 | Annual communication plan | Plan completed each year and in regular use |
| 3 | Quarterly media mentions | 450 mentions per quarter on average |