As Dickinson State University begins a new academic year, I am excited to welcome our students, faculty, and staff back to campus. I hope you had a restful and rejuvenating summer. As we begin another year together, I want to take a moment to recognize the extraordinary academic accomplishments of the past year and look ahead to the opportunities before us.

Thanks to the hard work, vision, and dedication of our academic leaders, faculty, and staff, DSU successfully met, and in many cases exceeded, the key performance indicators established by our administration team. Together, we expanded our educational footprint in unprecedented ways, responded directly to workforce needs, and created new pathways for students to achieve their educational and career goals.

Expanding Our Horizons: 21 New Academic Programs

One of our most significant accomplishments last year was the development of more than 20 new academic programs and certificates. These programs expand opportunities for students while positioning DSU to respond to emerging workforce needs across the region and beyond.

The overhaul of the curriculum was noticeable in the number of catalog changes submitted during the 2025-2026 academic year. Led by faculty and their respective school administrators, 128 new courses, 136 course changes, 156 course deletions, 22 new programs, 53 program changes, and seven program deletions were completed last academic year. While a few programs are awaiting accreditation approval, the overwhelming majority of these curricular innovations will be felt this academic year.

These new offerings demonstrate our commitment to providing programs that are relevant, flexible, and responsive to the needs of students, employers, and our region. The impact on new student enrollment will likely be felt in the Fall of 2027, when these program opportunities are marketed in our region. 

A great deal of thanks goes to our faculty and staff who made the curriculum updates possible. It was an extraordinary amount of work, especially for our Curriculum Council and Academic Records teams.

Strengthening Partnerships and Our Dual Mission

Our commitment to student opportunity extends beyond DSU's campus. Collaborative partnerships across the North Dakota University System continue to strengthen our academic offerings and create more accessible pathways for students.

Through our partnership with Williston State College, students can access co-matriculation opportunities in Williston for all business majors and criminal justice starting this academic year. Our partnership with North Dakota State University provides health science graduate pathways, including opportunities connected to Doctor of Pharmacy and Nurse Practitioner programs, allowing students to pursue advanced education while remaining connected to Dickinson. Our collaboration with the University of North Dakota also continues to bring engineering education directly to the western edge of North Dakota.

These partnerships reflect an important part of DSU's mission: providing students with access to educational opportunities while strengthening the connections among institutions throughout the state.

The Look Ahead: Innovation, Assessment, and Partnership

While we should be proud of what we accomplished last year, our work does not stop here. To remain relevant, competitive, and responsive to our students and communities, we must continue to innovate.

This year, we will deepen our commitment to creating a culture of assessment across Academic Affairs. Assessment should not simply be a compliance activity; it should be a tool for understanding what works, identifying opportunities for improvement, and ultimately helping more students succeed. We will continue connecting assessment results to institutional decision-making and prioritizing resources for projects that demonstrate meaningful potential to improve student outcomes.

For this reason, DSU has become an official participant in the Higher Learning Commission Assessment Academy. A dedicated team will participate in this effort, bringing back the cutting edge of assessment methods to our campus, benefiting faculty and students alike.

Faculty asked, and we delivered as we also welcomed Quality Matters training back to our campus. Held during Kickoff Week, the focus was on designing rigorous hybrid courses, a feature of many of our programs, which allows us to meet our strategic priority to provide relevant academic programs, where and how students want them, and close the loop with the adoption of our new hyflex definition in our DSULive courses. All full-time, benefited faculty will receive this certification, a verification to our students that we are invested in continuous quality improvement.

I also encourage everyone to visit our new Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence Classroom, made possible through North Dakota Workforce Education Innovation Funds. This innovative learning environment will give students hands-on experience in two rapidly evolving fields and represents another important investment in the future of DSU. An open house is being planned when the space is completed sometime in October, and additional information will be shared with the campus soon.

Looking ahead, we will also continue expanding opportunities for students to earn short-term micro-credentials and digital badges. Building on the success of the Excellence in Communication badge, we will explore additional credentials that allow students to demonstrate specific, employer-valued skills alongside their degrees and certificates.

Our connection with industry will remain an essential part of this work. We will continue inviting regional employers to campus and expanding academic advisory boards across our programs. Their expertise helps us ensure that our curriculum remains aligned with workforce expectations and that our graduates leave DSU prepared to contribute immediately in their chosen fields.

Building the Future Together

The accomplishments of the past year are a reflection of what can happen when we work together with a shared commitment to student success. As we begin this new academic year, I challenge us to maintain that momentum. Let us continue asking how we can improve, where we can innovate, and what more we can do to help our students succeed.

Thank you to our academic leaders, faculty, and staff for your continued dedication to our students and to the mission of Dickinson State University. Your work makes these accomplishments possible.

I am excited about what we will accomplish together this year. Let's make this another historic academic year for DSU!

Hawks are up!