Strategic Plan

Early College Exploration Day was held at the O'Neill Extended Campus for the first time with 134 students attending.

Northeast and UNL collaborated to offer a career exploration event for 250 students in Keya Paha, Brown, and Rock counties highlighting 50 area businesses. Representatives from two- and four-year institutions along with military recruiters were available to answer questions.

Reduced the number of students with unpaid balances by 15% at the end of the fiscal year by refining text and email communications.

Increased Inclusive Access digital textbook usage by 69%. This allows students to opt out, provides lower costs for course materials, and allows materials to be available on the first day of class.

Increased the number of bilingual student ambassadors from 3 to 5 to better serve the Hispanic population and families.

Hosted 8th Grade Career Workshops for ten schools.

Provided 892 personal campus tours to prospective students and families and developed a virtual tour on the Northeast website.

Increased the total number of student applications by 9% over the previous year.

Expanded mandatory advising to include a first-year advisor for all degree-seeking students.

95 Northeast student-athletes were named Fall Academic All-Region and 97 were named Spring Academic All-Region.

Men’s and women’s soccer teams qualified for the national tournament.

All new students were required to complete the MyMajors assessment prior to the first day of classes providing them with additional career exploration opportunities.

International freshman student enrollment increased to 31 students representing the largest class in the past decade.

Increased total scholarship dollars awarded to students by 13% over the previous year totaling $595,953.73.

A sensory room was established to promote physical and mental relaxation, improve focus, be a safe place to decompress or manage stress and be a place to encourage mindfulness and improve overall wellness.

85% of students that took Early College coursework in high school matriculated to college after graduation (including 28% to Northeast).

After seeing increased demand for scholarships after the March 1 application deadline had passed, Financial Aid introduced a rolling scholarship deadline, making unawarded scholarships available for later applicants. This allowed an additional 280 students to apply after the March 1 priority with 74% coming from underserved student populations.

Upgraded My Northeast to Ellucian Experience, including a mobile app.

Met with every student during New Student Registration to discuss financial aid packages and the cost to attend Northeast, ensuring that financial plans were in place.

Increased access to news and educational video resources through Library database management.

Implemented academic study tables to improve study habits for students with GPAs below 2.0 and/or low mid-term grades.

TRiO-College Success Program expanded to support 38-50 additional students.

Increased TRiO persistence from 94% to 96%, associate or certificate attainment from 66% to 78%, and transfer to a four-year institution from 20% to 29%.

Two Northeast students attended a White House Summit with vice president Kamala Harris to discuss issues affecting college students.

The TRIO Student Support Services Program partnered with Calmwater Financial to offer 76 TRIO students both group and individual financial education and planning.

13,585 students attended 89 programs offered by Student Activities - the highest engagement to date! This included Hearts are Wild, a Vegas-themed prom, with 246 students attending - many who missed their high school prom due to the pandemic.

The Becoming a Hawk program was launched which ensures students integrate into the culture of college through New Student Registration sessions, Hawk Help Days, and move-in day for residence halls among other activities. Fall Orientation was moved from Sunday to Friday with 746 new freshmen attending in Fall 2021 resulting in the largest participation in the event.

In Fall 2021, there were 27 new international students and 30 returning resulting in the largest population of international students to date!

Northeast joined a national effort to support student well-being and mental health by becoming a JED Campus.

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Coaching Intensive Training was provided to 37 employees.

613 students participated in student clubs including three new clubs for Ag Business, Media Arts, and E-Sports.

88 programs with 862 attendees were held for on-campus housing students focused on residence life core areas of personal development, academic success, social engagement, and global perspectives.

A frisbee golf course was installed on the Norfolk campus, led by the Student Leadership Association.

5082 tutoring sessions were held in 2021-22.

The Hawk Shop transitioned to an instore textbook rental program which reduces rental pricing to students and provides additional options for utilization of digital content.

On-campus housing residents knew their room placements before New Student Registration for the first time through the adoption of housing occupancy software.

Mandatory advising was expanded to include Applied Technology students and ensures that all degree-seeking freshman have a first-year advisor.

Financial Aid increased access to scholarships through the implementation of a rolling scholarship deadline. An additional 303 students completed scholarship applications after the priority deadline. As a result, the number of scholarship applications grew by 37.7% over the previous year resulting in 1106 applications.

Advising 360 was launched which provides a single view for student information.

Northeast earned the Military Friendly Designation for 2021-22 for its work assisting current members of the military and military veterans in their pursuit of higher education.

A self-scheduling calendar for personal campus tours was created for prospective students and their families, bilingual/Spanish tours were offered by bilingual student ambassadors, and personalized next steps welcome sheets were created which help prospective students and families better understand where the student is in the intake process.

The Nebraska Career Scholarship was launched providing up to $5,000 per year in addition to other financial aid for students enrolling in high-demand, highwage careers.

Women’s soccer won the Region XI and Plains District Championships.

The men’s golf team made it to the NJCAA DII National Tournament for the first time in more than 10 years.

The baseball team broke the school record for most wins in a season (39)

All athletic teams (8) were named Academic Teams of the Year by the National Junior College Athletic Association by having a team GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Northeast students earned 64 medals at the 2023 SkillsUSA Nebraska State Leadership and Skills Conference and 20 medals at the 59th annual SkillsUSA National Conference.

A 911 Dispatcher 40-hour training course was developed following a DACUM (designing a curriculum) workshop with county officials.

Through program mapping, 83% of programs in the Applied Technology division allow for completion of math and English in the student’s first year.

Northeast was named to the top 15 Entrepreneurial Colleges of the Future by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship.

Launched a zero textbook cost early adopter program for faculty.

Expanded continuing education opportunities for incumbent veterinary technicians.

The Norfolk Manufacturing Alliance was created to focus on the business needs of Norfolk area manufacturers, employment and training needs, automation access, and more.

More than 980 industry-recognized credentials were earned by students in Applied Technology programs.

Student Activities Council (SAC) was named the Student Programming Board of the Midwest region for 2022-23 by the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities.

Developed a job shadowing program allowing students to gain direct exposure to careers.

Piloted the use of virtual reality with the Physical Therapist Assistant program.

Business students earned 27 awards at the state collegiate business leaders conference and 71 awards at the national event.

New programs were developed to include a Medical Billing Diploma, Welding Certificate, and concentrations in History and Systems Administration.

Launched program orientation for agriculture majors to orient students to pathways and careers related to agriculture majors.

Northeast students finished in second place in sweepstakes and earned 30 awards for two-year colleges at the 2023 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Judging Conference.

Expanded career exploration opportunities for high school students in Pre Veterinary Sciences and Vet Technology.

Expanded the Workforce Partners program to the West Point region, offering leadership development opportunities for cohorts of businesses.

1057 Residence Life students attended 33 programs on Residence Life Core Areas.

Broadcasting Instructor Brian Anderson was the recipient of the 2022 Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) Western Region Faculty Member Award. He was one of five regional faculty members from two-year colleges to be recognized. ACCT’s western region covers 10 states and five Canadian provinces and territories.

Northeast took top honors in two team events during the 2023 College Lineman’s Rodeo featuring institutions across the Midwest.

Developed an apprenticeship program for Diesel Mechanic and the number of apprentices grew from 3 to 19.

Increased Adult Education enrollment from 711 to 889.

Northeast students earned 56 medals at the 2022 SkillsUSA Nebraska State Leadership and Skills Conference and 15 medals were earned at the 58th annual SkillsUSA National Conference.

48 employers and approximately 143 students participated in the annual Part-Time Job Fair. 358 students and 90 employers participated in the Spring Career Fair.

142 students qualified for membership into the Phi Theta Kappa, Tau Chi chapter, an international academic honor society for two-year colleges. Since the installation in 1996, roughly 3,300 students have been inducted. Four of these students were named to the 2022 All-Nebraska Academic Team honoring students for academic achievement, leadership, and service.

Embedded librarianship reached 19% more students than previous years exposing more students to resources and training materials provided by the library.

Criminal Justice co-sponsored the inaugural 2022 Family Violence Summit in collaboration with Faith Regional Health Services and Behavioral Health Specialists to provide professional development for current practitioners and students.

An additional truck driving trainer was hired to meet industry demand which enabled credit hour production to increase by 35.7%.

Northeast Agriculture students placed 2nd at the 2022 NACTA Judging Conference.

Phi Beta Lambda students earned 27 awards at the 2022 Nebraska State Leadership Conference.

“Backyard Farmer,” a Nebraska Public Media program, was hosted at the Northeast campus for a live taping that aired in June 2022.

Thirty students participated in international travel experiences in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Business program collaborated with Gallup and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to integrate Clifton Strengths into curriculum.

NCLEX-PN (Practical Nurse) pass rate was 100% and NCLEX-RN (Registered Nurse) pass rate was 97.22% for 2021 graduates.

General Education Goals were revised to include stewardship, reasoning, communication, and relational perspective.

Thirteen Pathways-2-Tomorrow students qualified for the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) International Leadership Conference.

1,109 industry recognized credentials were awarded through Applied Technology programs, the highest number of credentials awarded to date.

The National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3) recognized Northeast Community College for its School on the Rise award for consistent growth in issuing certifications since joining the NC3 network; as well as demonstrating innovative CTE initiatives and programs to support students and the service area.

Early College enrollment increased to 1,658 unduplicated students in 2021-22 to mark the largest enrollment to date.

A Memorandum of Agreement that creates the Associate of Applied Science (AAS)/Bachelor of Science (BS) Technology program was signed with Wayne State College. It allows graduates who complete their associate degrees at Northeast Community College to transfer academic credits to Wayne State College to study industrial technology and earn a bachelor’s degree.

The Precision Agriculture program utilized a multi-hybrid planter built in a precision hardware course to plant a design of a Hawk on a soybean field.

The Northeast Nebraska Agriculture and Natural Resources Education Compact was expanded to now include more than 20 school districts and all regional institutions of higher education to use resources and promote collaboration to boost ag education and strengthen academic transfer processes.

Student assessment of instruction (Course Survey 1.0) was launched for every course beginning in spring 2022 to allow for accessible student assessment feedback via dashboards.

New programs were developed to include Health Information Management (Certificate and Diploma), Music Theatre Associate of Arts concentration, and Personal Training Diploma.

Workforce Partners, a leadership program for cohorts of small businesses, was successfully launched for the first time in the Hartington area. Programs are also offered in Norfolk; O’Neill; and Keya Paha, Brown, and Rock counties.

A Family Literacy Program was launched in O’Neill.

Northeast partnered with Rock County High School to develop an internship program with 11 students participating in the first year.

An Integrated Education and Training (IET) program was launched for the CDL training course.

61 industrial maintenance workers were upskilled over the course of four months, increasing their earnings, and adding valuable skills to the workforce.

National Science Foundation Grant: advancing tools of precision agriculture in the field of agriculture.

U.S. Department of Labor Apprenticeship Building America Grant: strengthening Registered Apprenticeship Program in partnership with Central and Southeast Community Colleges.

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Grant: expanding the vet tech program with added faculty and outreach work with high school students.

Natural Resources Conservation Service Agreement: conducting urban farm applied research.

National Endowment for the Arts Grant: Big Read series of public events.

USDA Rural Development Grant: purchased a simulator for use in backhoe/excavator training, specifically for small businesses.

Norfolk Area Relay for Life was held June 2, 2023, at Ta-Ha-Zouka Park, raising $57,975 by all teams. The Northeast Hope Hawks contributed by holding an apparel exchange in which employees could give a freewill donation for Northeast clothing, provided Blossoms of Hope, offered luminaria decorating, fundraised through Tastefully Simple, and held a silent auction.

Developed a college seal representing academic excellence to be used on materials associated with official and ceremonial occasions.

Provided a leadership training series for 94 supervisors.

Hosted the Athletics Hall of Fame banquet for the first time in 23 years honoring inductees for achievements in Northeast athletics.

The Nebraska Poetry Festival was held at Northeast Community College and Wayne State College in Fall 2022. It has been 30 years since the last festival. Twenty published poets read at the two-day event, including two Northeast faculty.

Simple Syllabus was implemented which enables faculty to publish interactive syllabi within the learning management system.

CourseDog scheduling tool was implemented for credit courses.

Implemented a security badge reward program to create awareness and provide education around security incidents.

Restructured the compensation strategy, resulting in an 8% average salary increase to improve recruitment efforts (time to fill positions has decreased by 14 days) and increase employee retention (current time stay is 11 and 7 years for full- and part-time employees, respectively).

Held 51 NEA Big Read events aimed at increasing empathy and inclusion, specifically as it relates to individuals experiencing disclosed and hidden disabilities.

Created a collaborative Pride art piece, which started at Northeast and concluded at the community Pride Festival.

Tony Milenkovich (full-time faculty), Christine Case (part-time faculty), Anthony Faust (professional managerial), and Lynda Kassmeier (classified staff) were the US Bank Great Performer Award recipients in 2023.

Forty-five employees participated in volunteer work, for a total of 308 hours.

Employee turnover rate at Northeast was 5%, which is below the national average of 37%.

Northeast Community College was named Ag Business of the Year by the Norfolk and Madison Chambers.

Four representatives of Northeast were named to the Top 20 Under 40 as young professionals growing and excelling in their fields.

Dr. Cyndi Hanson was recognized as a Siouxland Key Leader by the Sioux City Chamber.

Representatives from Northeast participated in Leadership Norfolk (Cori Lamm and Shubha Krishnamurthy), Leadership Nebraska (Dr. Tracy Kruse), and Nebraska LEAD (Leadership Education/Action Development) (Dr. Trentee Bush). President Barrett was selected to participate in 2021-2022 Aspen New Presidents Fellowship and received the Phi Theta Kappa Paragon President Award.

Joni Cassidy was selected as president for the Nebraska Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (NACRAO).

Lisa Guenther (Full-time Faculty), Robert Stout (Part-time Faculty), Ed Lewis (Professional Managerial), and Erika Rupprecht (Classified Staff) were the US Bank Great Performer Award recipients in 2022.

Women’s soccer head coach Chad Miller was named ICCAC Coach of the Year.

Northeast marketing and public relations departments earned eight awards from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations for excellence in two-year college communications. District 5 Pacesetter and Communicator of the Year awards were also earned.

A successful Multi-Location Visit, an accreditation requirement for institutions with three or more off-campus additional locations, took place in April of 2022 at the West Point and South Sioux City campuses.

Northeast’s Quality Initiative, Building Capacity for Guided Pathways, was accepted by the Higher Learning Commission.

196 employees participated in shared governance activities through committees.

The faculty onboarding experience was enhanced by assigning mentors in academic divisions.

Launched PolicyStat and iContracts to electronically manage more than 200 policies and procedures and 300+ active contracts and license agreements.

Axiom software was implemented for the operating budget and 80 budget managers were trained.

Increased credit card usage by 36% on purchases below $500 resulting in efficiencies in processing.

A Technology Outreach Program was created to ensure technology needs are met across all campuses, locations, and buildings.

Northeast was awarded 28 grants totaling $12,784,576 in 2022-23. An additional 14 grants valued at $3,878,633 were continued.

Developed an Information Clearinghouse to serve as a central location for data, reports, and resources.

Overall data literacy and training scores increased from 2.71 to 3.06, with the largest growth seen in training, access, and awareness increasing from 2.14 to 2.9 on a 4.0 scale.

Migrated on-premise SharePoint sites to Microsoft Teams and SharePoint online.

Transitioned from the on-premise enterprise resource system to the Ellucian Managed Cloud.

Analytic capability and reports satisfaction scores increased from 69% to 76% due to various data literacy initiatives.

Deployed Eduroam across all college locations allowing users to seamlessly roam across wireless networks, providing a better user experience.

Enrolled 1600+ devices on InTune allowing for automated deployment of patching and updates.

Time required to fill open positions was reduced by 20%.

College-wide contract approval procedure was developed.

Eight dashboards were developed to increase data access and transparency.

Employee chat service transitioned from Jabber to Microsoft Teams.

All students and employees were successfully enrolled in MultiFactor Authentication (MFA).

Northeast was awarded 24 grants totaling $3,654,719 in 2021-2022. An additional 25 grants valued at $9,291,961 were continued.

Maintained technology contract renewals at 5.4% average increase, which is below the goal of 8%.

Third-party calling service was implemented to reduce after hours support through the Service Center.

Data Literacy Campaign was launched to foster a culture of data-informed decision making.

Administrative Assessment was launched.

Technology Services developed a strategic plan to align their work with College’s priorities and guided pathways.

Upgrades to Banner 9 Self Service were launched for the General Module (Communications Manager, Personal Information, Direct Deposit, and extensibility tools (Page Builder, Theme Editor)); Finance Module; and Student Module (Financial Aid, Accounts Receivable, Student Profile, and Advising 360).

True Dialog, a texting service, was launched in 2022 allowing Northeast to communicate with current and prospective students via text message.

Reallocation of college general operating expenses provided for additional opportunities for equipment purchases to support educational services and a Career Education and Outreach Coordinator position was funded to provide support and guidance to prospective and current students for the purpose of increasing knowledge and confidence levels regarding major and career choices.