Goal 5 Use technology to ensure improvement and attainment of service excellence to the community. Data Collection and Analysis Powers Informed Decision Making
With FNU’s structure of shared governance, all faculty, staff, and the committees on which they serve are empowered and expected to make informed decisions. Accordingly, FNU has made information gathering and accessibility a priority. “Several years ago we included in our strategic plan our intent to be a data-driven university,” said FNU Executive Vice President for Finance and Facilities Michael Steinmetz, CPA, CMA, CSCA. “That objective led us to clean up our data and exposed the need to have a good reporting interface that could easily be accessed by all university employees.” In March 2019, FNU selected Sisense to be that reporting interface. The analytics software shares data in easy-to-digest visual formats that can be accessed by FNU faculty and staff members. The software enables the creation and download of charts and graphs for presentations and reports, but more importantly, it is an essential tool in helping the university track its progress towards its strategic plan goals.
less time. Being able to find and use the data in real-time allows me and my team to make data-driven decisions and create more meaningful retention initiatives.”
Abby McCarthy
Decisions that might have been made via anecdotal information in the past are now driven by data that is constantly being updated and monitored.
“Having the Sisense dashboards has really transformed my ability to share retention data with the rest of the community,” said FNU Director of Student Retention & Records Abby McCarthy. “Using our previous methods it would often take weeks to identify, collect, and clean the data I was looking for. Now I have more information at my fingertips and can turn around data requests in significantly
| 2020 PRESIDENT’S REPORT
“The software is a data analytics tool that is used to combine multiple data sources and create interactive dashboards that can be shared with multiple users via the web,” said FNU Enterprise Systems Manager Chris Coots. “The data and dashboards can also be accessed from any mobile device.”
Marc Weitlauf
“It is graphically appealing and simple to interact with,” said FNU Senior Grants Management Officer April Tabor. “It makes the process of viewing the demographics of our student body quick and effortless.”
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The data has helped FNU identify the points in their program at which students are most likely to withdraw or falter, which degree paths have the highest retention rates, and which retention methods are most effective. The data is equally effective at identifying successes and opportunities for improvement in a number of areas across the university, including recruitment, enrollment, diversity, and fundraising.
“Playing with the data creates new awareness, like turning the lights on in a room. We are making decisions based on data rather than anecdotal information. This is the tool we needed.” -- Marilyn Lyons
