Core Component: Internal and external constituencies value the services Notre Dame College provides.

Notre Dame College’s evaluation of services involves the constituencies served.

Notre Dame College involves its internal and external constituencies in assessing the quality and usefulness of the services it offers. The College welcomes feedback on the programs and services it offers. Evidence comes from surveys, evaluation forms, verbal comments, e-mails, and letters.

  • Faculty evaluation surveys completed by students for each course are used to improve teaching strategies and are taken into consideration in renewing contracts for instructors.

  • Student Activities, Career Services, the Counseling Center, the Dwyer Learning Center, and Normandy Catering have surveys and evaluation forms on the campus intranet. Responses can be submitted anonymously.

    The Notre Dame College evaluation form is distributed to participants after College events.

  • Graduation surveys completed by graduating seniors and Homecoming surveys sent to alumni assist the Advancement Office in establishing donor profiles, planning relevant programming, and maintaining and strengthening College ties.

  • In an effort to provide professional development that meets the needs of Northeast Ohio’s adult learners, the Center for Professional Development includes a detailed survey at the back of its course catalog pertaining to the professional development needs of its users that may be faxed or mailed back to the College. This is targeted to prospective students as well as those presently enrolled in a course.

  • The Notre Dame College evaluation form is distributed to participants after College events. Many of the individuals that come to these events are from outside the College community. Demographic information such as residence, relationship to the College, age, sex, and how they learned about the event help the College target audiences. Comments regarding the specific event help Notre Dame gauge its success in providing valuable programming .

Service programs and student, faculty, and staff volunteer activities are well-received by the communities served.

The impact of Notre Dame College’s volunteerism reaches across the campus, throughout the local community and around the globe. For example:

  • Notre Dame College faculty and staff serve a midnight breakfast to students on the Monday of finals’ weeks and Thanksgiving and Easter dinners to the students. Although all students are appreciative, international students in particular enjoy these events and are very happy to experience American foods and customs.

  • Volunteers from the College participate in United Way Day of Caring. They cleaned and organized one of the AIDS Taskforce Residential houses.

    The remarkable growth and expansion of the Center for Professional Development’s program offerings over the past five years is proof of the Center’s value in training Greater Cleveland’s workforce.

  • Notre Dame students participated in Habitat for Humanity in New York and were pictured on the Today Show.

  • The Library has received many letters of thanks for the books it has donated to Third World Books and Books for Africa.

  • Israeli students who received soccer uniforms donated by the Notre Dame College soccer team through the PassBack Program sent pictures showing them wearing the uniforms.

Notre Dame College’s economic and workforce development activities are sought after and valued by civic and business leaders.

The remarkable growth and expansion of the Center for Professional Development’s program offerings over the past five years is proof of the Center’s value in training Greater Cleveland’s workforce. It is a testimony to the success of the Center that its brochures and Fall and Spring/ Summer catalogs are sent to over 18,000 individuals and organizations. In addition, many organizations such as the Human Resource Certificate Institute, the American Sports Education Program, and the National Academic Consortium for Homeland Security endorse its programs on their websites. The Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District is among the school districts that also endorse Notre Dame College as a recommended site for professional development.

Local businesses also seek our students for co-ops and internships. In October, 2006, the former Director of Career Services was profiled in The Plain Dealer.

External constituents participate in the organization’s activities and co-curricular programs open to the public.

Notre Dame College provides a full range of cultural, educational, and athletic events that are open to the general public. Many of these events are free or only charge a nominal fee. As described previously, the galleries in the Performing Arts Center and Library reach out to the local community by providing exhibits of interest to a diverse audience. These exhibits are free and open to the public. Announcements generally appear in local papers and magazines and flyers are distributed throughout the community. Responses in exhibit guest books and event evaluation forms indicate that these events are greatly appreciated by the community at large. Many individuals ask to be added to the mailing list.

  • The Art Department hosts four exhibits per year in the College’s Performing Arts Center, two in the Fall and two in the Spring. A gallery talk is usually scheduled for a date during the run of the show. The attendance at the opening reception All-College Art Show held in the Spring is normally the largest of the year. Events such as “Mary Costanza: In Love and war,” attracted over 200 people on opening night. It is estimated that approximately 500 people viewed the exhibit during its run.

  • The Library keeps an attendance log of its exhibits. Attendance at the openings is usually from 40-75 people. During the course of its run, over 300 people viewed the “Symbolic Beauty” exhibit of Croatian textiles, with people attending from out-of-state. The Eastern Church Resource Center Anniversary celebration generally attracts about 40 people. Other events range from about 10-15 for a seminar on “Book Collecting 101” to a capacity crowd of over 200 people in the Performing Arts Center to hear local author and theology professor Joseph Kelly speak on the “History and Fiction in The DaVinci Code.” These events attract the general public as well as Notre Dame College students and personnel.

  • Masquers, Notre Dame College’s theater group, stages a play in the spring. It is advertised in the local Sun Messenger and attracts individuals from the local community.

  • The Tolerance Resource Center sponsors educational programs that are open to the general public, such as Community Connections‚ “Insights and Illuminations,” a series of community-building workshops, “A Series of Discoveries,” a series of workshops dealing with racial stereotyping and “Exploring Paths to God: A Conversation for Catholics and Jews.” Attending were individuals from the local community; College students, faculty, and staff; and Sisters of Notre Dame.

  • The Notre Dame College Chorus has concerts throughout the year which are open to the public. During the Christmas season they perform at Legacy Village, a local retail community.

    Tony Poel Plays Golf

    THE COLLEGE’S ANNUAL GOLF OUTING RAISES MONEY FOR ITS ATHLETIC PROGRAM.

  • Sports enthusiasts from the local community are welcome to Notre Dame College’s sporting contests.

  • The College’s annual golf outing in July raises money for its athletic program. In 2004 it included 97 golfers, in 2005 it included 130 golfers, and in 2006, it included 141 golfers and raised over $13,000.

  • The general public participates in Notre Dame College’s Annual Swim for Diabetes event, with 133 participants raising $10,000 for the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland in 2005 and $8,000 in 2006.

  • Daily mass and Saturday Vigil Mass in Christ the King Chapel is attended by members of the immediate area, College faculty, students, staff, and Sisters of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame College’s facilities are available to and used by the community.

Notre Dame College makes many of its facilities and campus resources available to individuals and groups in the surrounding communities. Renting its facilities to outside individuals and groups provides a means for first-time visitors to become acquainted with the campus. Facilities available to the general public include the Keller Center, Clara Fritzsche Library, Rinehart Room, cafeteria, Great Room, Little Theater, and Chapel.

College facilities are used by civic, business, and educational groups for training, social activities, and meetings. Examples include the City of South Euclid Community Concerts and Fun Day, Diocese of Cleveland teacher training programs, Musicians for Healing & Therapy Conference, the Cuyahoga County Board of MRDD in-services, band camps, sports camps, Women in Leadership meetings, retreats by local high school students, and retreats by South Euclid officials.

When the campus hosted the International Children’s Games in 2004, the residence halls, cafeteria and sports facilities were utilized by the visiting athletes. Facilities bookings are done primarily through the Center for Professional Development.

Alumni are welcome to reserve the Chapel for weddings and baptisms.

Keller Center:

  • Many from the local community have memberships to the Keller Center enabling them to use the pool and fitness equipment.

  • The Murphy gym is rented to various sports groups.

  • The Mellen pool is rented to local high schools for swim practices. Yeshiva School for Boys -Jacob Sapirstein Campus, located next to the College, uses the pool for water safety instruction classes and camp events. A scuba company rents the pool for scuba classes.

Library:

  • Anyone can schedule the seminar room at no charge for meetings, tutoring, classes, group work, or quiet study.

  • The Library, its special collections, and the first floor computer lab are open to all. Guest patrons pay $5.00 for a one-year renewable membership that enables them to borrow books and use interlibrary loan service. The Curriculum Library is used often by alumni and other teachers from local school districts.

  • The Library offers first floor gallery space (15 1/2’ x 20’) for local artists. The space is booked through Summer, 2007.

  • The SMART Classroom is used for training and education sessions for outside groups scheduled through the Center for Professional Development.

  • Performing Arts Center:

  • Professional artists may book the Performing Arts Center through the chair of the Art Department. The reputation of the gallery has resulted in prominent local and nationally-known artists approaching Notre Dame College, wishing to exhibit in the space.

  • The Performing Arts Center and Little Theater are also used by outside groups for meetings, workshops, or cultural events such as dramatic readings by the Bodwin Theater group.

Notre Dame College provides programs to meet the continuing education needs of licensed professionals in its community.

Notre Dame College provides a number of programs that meet the continuing education needs of licensed professionals in the community. These include the TEEL® program, the Graduate Studies program, the continuing education courses and certification programs offered by the Center for Professional Development Center and the Weekend College program. All of these programs are designed with the needs of the busy professional adult student in mind and feature flexible scheduling.

  • The TEEL® program provides a program leading to teacher certification for college graduates at a number of convenient locations throughout the state of Ohio.

  • The Graduate Studies program prepares individuals to become master teachers.

  • The Center for Professional Development provides ongoing professional development for teachers, coaches, social workers, human services personnel, nurses and business personnel.

  • The WECO program provides an accelerated undergraduate degree track for those individuals wishing to reenter the workforce or retrain for a change in career.

  • The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program meets the needs of registered nurses who have graduated from a hospital-based nursing program or Associate of Science in Nursing program and passed the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX) to complete their BSN in an accelerated format.

  • The recent expansion of the TEEL® program to other Ohio cities and the growth of the Center for Professional Development indicate that Notre Dame College is attuned to the needs of professionals in the community.

Considerations to be forwarded to the Institutional Policy and Planning Committee:

Short term Increase marketing staff to better promote our unique resources and programs.

On a weekly basis, post the facilities’ booking list on the intranet to increase awareness of the complete range of events scheduled on campus.

Advertise the Senior Growth program so the senior citizens become aware of the availability of courses at minimal cost.

Long term There is a need for regularly scheduled retreats for faculty and staff in order to foster creative solutions to institutional growth and change. At present there is not enough time for this type of strategic thinking.

A mechanism should be in place for evaluating outreach. A scan for identifying community needs should be done every five years. The College should monitor institutional effectiveness and perform periodic environmental scanning, track and assess outreach efforts and event attendance, monitor feedback, evaluate survey results, and gather and maintain institutional statistics.

The College should strengthen the connection with parents by adding a parents-link to the website, creating monthly mailings or e-mail, establishing a Parents Weekend, and forming a Parents Committee to increase parental involvement.

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