Office of Institutional Effectiveness

New Office Focuses on Continued Improvement

By Carol Kunzler

Since his inauguration in 2019, President Brad Cook has been working diligently to continue the Spirit of Snow that he experienced when he was a student at Snow College. Along with many other improvements to the Snow College organizational structure, President Cook created the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE). “This new office addresses a need in Snow’s strategic plan to remove technological barriers for students, faculty and staff,” wrote President Cook when he announced the new office in July 2020 in an email sent to all Snow College employees. “The main goal of this office is to support the mission, values and core commitment of the college by providing leadership and institutional research in a variety of areas.”

President Cook considered the expertise and experience of each team member and invited current Snow College personnel to staff the office. Each team member’s role is specialized and unique to the needs and mission of the OIE. Paul Tew, director of institutional effectiveness and the information security officer, leads the team. Micah Strait, senior institutional effectiveness analyst, and Beckie Hermansen, director of institutional research, combine their efforts to collect, manage, and analyze data that can be used to drive projects and evaluate institutional needs. Ryan Yorgason, institutional project manager, works to implement and facilitate projects that support the missions of the College.

The team has already been collecting and using data to drive and establish new workflows and initiate the use of new technologies that enhance and improve the effectiveness of what continues to make Snow College No. 1 in the nation for student success.

Tew emphasized that “one of the priorities of the OIE is to help the College improve student success and ensure educational quality.”

New technologies can be used to make these improvements. Tew stated, “One improvement already in use is the implementation of electronic scanning of student, staff, and faculty ID in various facilities on campus. Prior to these changes, manual and often hand-written processes were being used. With the new system, we have reduced work and errors into a quick scan of a Snow College ID. This new system moves staff, faculty, and student workers away from tasks technology can handle, to tasks that more closely support student success.”

As the OIE team moves forward, they plan to create more effective change to support the College’s strategic planning. “We have many ideas already in the planning stages and are hoping to continue our efforts positively in the future by creating positive improvements to Snow College,” Tew said.

Photo Caption: The Office of Institutional Effectiveness team (from left to right): Micah Strait, Paul Tew, Ryan Yorgason, and Beckie Hermansen.