How should students benefit from participating in our programs and services? 
How do we know if we are successful?
People who include assessment in their work are committed to asking these questions and to learning how we can better serve our students.
 
As professionals working to empower, engage, and guide students in all aspects of their college experience, we know that students learn valuable skills in our offices, gyms, classrooms, meeting spaces, and service centers. Our dedication to co-curricular assessment is evidence of our commitment to continuous improvement, accountability, and leadership development.
  
Continuous improvement: As Student Affairs professionals, we define outcomes based on how we want students to grow as a result of our participating in our programs and services. When we assess those outcomes, we collect data that demonstrates our effectiveness and how we can do better. 

Accountability: The way we conduct and report assessment helps others understand how we serve the NMSU community.  
  • Students are included in how we design assessment. They help us understand what is important to them, how our programs add to the student experience, and how we can design assessments that are equity-minded and relevant.  
  • How we use assessment data to improve programming and services posted on our website for anybody to review.   
Leadership development: In promoting open conversations about improvement, we demonstrate our willingness and ability to examine our own practices and to make data-driven decisions on how to best serve students. These are skills needed by current and future leaders at NMSU.