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Key Priorities

Strategic Plan

Grounded in evidence-informed practice and collaboration, Student-Centered Excellence, Life-Long Impact positions Student Affairs as a strategic contributor to persistence, completion and long-term success for UNCW students. To advance this vision, the division will focus its work across four strategic priorities and intentionally focus on a set of yearly action items.

Student Wellbeing & Belonging

Student Affairs will build a coordinated campus wellbeing and belonging ecosystem through aligned programs, meaningful engagement opportunities, and cross-campus partnerships that support connection, resilience, persistence and student success.

Objective:

  • Embed upstream wellbeing practices across programs, student employment and engagement pathways.
    • Year 1 Action: Implement a Healthy Hawks participation pathway recognizing sustained wellbeing engagement.
    • Year 1 Action: Establish a coordinated financial literacy initiative, including the development of a Financial Literacy Office. 

Objectives:

  • Implement the Seahawk Student Experience as a developmental engagement pathway across the undergraduate lifecycle.
    • Year 1 Action: Continue development and introduction of the Seahawk Student Experience model to the division and to undergraduate students.
  • Strengthen mentoring and coaching opportunities across the undergraduate student lifecycle to improve access and engagement.
    • Year 1 Action: Determine common definitions of mentoring and coaching for clarity and enable measurement of impact over time.
    • Year 1 Action: Inventory existing Student Affairs mentoring and coaching programs to identify gaps, duplication and opportunities for coordination.

Objectives:

  • Increase participation in traditions and campus connections.
    • Year 1 Action: Expand coordinated senior-year traditions and transition experiences that strengthen students' connections to the university. 
  • Expand opportunities for students to develop dialogue, reflection and resiliency skills that support constructive engagement.
    • Year 1 Action: Identify existing programs and opportunities across Student Affairs that support respectful interactions, reflection and constructive dialogue skills.

Objective:

  • Strengthen coordinated support for student basic needs.

Career Readiness

Student Affairs will help lead a coordinated campus career ecosystem that prepares students for meaningful employment, graduate education and lifelong adaptability.

Objectives:

  • Strengthen coordination of career readiness across Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.
    • Year 1 Action: Establish a collaborative structure aligning career readiness initiatives across Student Affairs and Academic Affairs. 
  • Expand student employee work-based learning across Student Affairs.
    • Year 1 Action: Assess current student employment practices to identify opportunities to expand work-based learning across division settings. 

Objectives:

  • Strengthen alumni-supported mentoring and internships as career pathway strategies.
  • Expand employer partnerships aligned with workforce trends.

Objectives:

  • Implement division-wide tracking of High Impact Practice participation.
    • Year 1 Action: Map division programs and experiences that align with High Impact Practice participation. 
  • Increase student participation in Student Affairs-related High Impact Practices prior to graduation.

Staff Wellbeing & Development

Student Affairs will cultivate a thriving professional community supported by strong recognition practices, career pathways, and leadership development opportunities that sustain excellence in student support.

Objective:

  • Improve staff satisfaction, engagement and retention across Student Affairs.
    • Year 1 Action: Conduct regular reviews of divisional compensation alignment relative to university and state market reference rates and use findings to inform advocacy and planning.
    • Year 1 Action: Develop and implement a divisional employee survey to identify priority areas affecting staff satisfaction.

Objectives:

  • Strengthen professional development opportunities across career stages.
  • Strengthen onboarding and early-career support for new professional and graduate student employees.

Objective:

  • Strengthen staff readiness to respond to emerging student needs and future student population trends.

Operational Excellence & Planning

Student Affairs will align infrastructure, staffing capacity, assessment practices, and strategic planning processes to strengthen operational effectiveness and demonstrate a measurable impact on student success. 

Objectives:

  • Continue to implement priority recommendations from divisional and departmental program reviews.
  • Advance strategic space planning that supports divisional needs.

Objectives:

  • Establish a Student Affairs data warehouse supporting integrated assessment and planning.
    • Year 1 Action: Integrate departmental data sources into a secure centralized divisional data environment. 
  • Use student voices and assessments to strengthen how the division communicates impact.

Objectives:

  • Implement coordinated protocols supporting expressive activity and campus response.
    • Year 1 Action: Finalize and publish a Demonstration Response Protocol. 
  • Streamline student-facing processes within Student Affairs to improve access, navigation and timely support.