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News Brief

Aug. 11, 2025 |  By: Gavin McGough

Northwest Adopts 2025-26 Goals

Northwest Bell Tower

The Board of Regents of Northwest Missouri State University adopted a set of institutional goals for the upcoming year at their July 31st meeting.
KXCV's Gavin McGough was at that meeting at the campus agricultural learning center, and filed this report.

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 This year's goals will sound familiar to those who follow Northwest Affairs, as university leadership addresses them. Often the four priority areas are enrollment, growth and sustainability, college experience, people and operations.

The university has been working on all aspects of its student recruitment strategy from pulling in transfer students to purchasing a new building at the entrance of campus to serve as a visitor center.

President Lance Tatum, addressing the room at the region's meeting says they are also looking abroad.

President Tatum says,  "We're gonna expand the international undergraduate recruitment. Certainly there is a whole lot of activity that occurs in the international recruitment market. This has not been a banner year for the United States, just because of the national activity that has surrounded the conversation of immigration."

 A large share of the international students currently served by Northwest are graduate students from India.

Due to a slowdown in Visa approvals, the university anticipates a sharp drop in those students this coming year. Despite that setback, Northwest is looking to grow its recruiting presence in Southeast Asia with a focus on undergraduate.

International enrollment does align with the Northwest Mission, says Tatum.

 "We think that we have a lot to offer international students here at Northwest. We think that our domestic students benefit greatly by being exposed to individuals from other parts of the world.", says Tatum. 

 Continuing on, Tatum says enrollment goals are related to goals around the college experience.

 According to Tatum, "Getting students here is the first part of the conversation. Keeping students here is the second part, and so some of that really comes with how students are supported through their academic journey."

 Currently, the university graduates between 50 and 60% of its original enrollees.

At today's meeting, Tatum says the university will attempt to implement a four year advising model to support students and further improve those retention numbers. Finally, when it comes to people, Northwest is looking to implement a recently completed compensation study. This will involve bringing faculty salaries up to competitive industry benchmarks.

 "We are committed even in this very challenging economic period to beginning that process. Come January 1st, we will know exactly what our enrollment looks like. We will begin chipping away at our market position so that we can get as many people in this first phase who are at the lower end of the market scale into the right position.", says Tatum. 

 Students are returning to Maryville this month with classes for the fall semester set to begin on August 25th.