NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and Keeling & Associates (K&A) have joined together to found the International Center for Student Success and Institutional Accountability (ICSSIA), a means of responding to two significant but related issues in higher education: an increasingly heterogeneous cadre of students with increasingly divergent needs and backgrounds, and an increasingly urgent demand from the public for accountability. These two phenomena are almost symbiotically interrelated, and the Center is designed to provide resources, policy initiatives, grant-funded projects, and a variety of discussion forums to help higher education institutions deal with these two related issues.

Vision

The vision of ICSSIA is to provide educators in post-secondary institutions resources and strategies with which to keep the promise of higher education for every student.

Mission

The mission of ICSSIA is to help post-secondary institutions improve student success and learning outcomes through professional development, applied research, and the creation and sharing of unique resources.

Why a New Center?

There is nothing like ICSSIA in higher education today -- no entity, structure, or organization that explicitly and diligently focuses its resources and priorities on aligning competency and capacity with intentions and accountability, on making commitments to student success real and achievable.

What is the Center's Focus?

The purpose of ICSSIA is to keep the promise of higher education for every student. Its role is to build the capacity of colleges and universities to 1) identify and strengthen the parameters of success for all students; 2) develop, assess, and be accountable for the achievement of essential student learning outcomes and indicators of institutional effectiveness, and 3) use every institutional resource to support the education and preparation of the whole student. ICSSIA will help institutions of higher education learn to do what they want to do: help students — all students — succeed.

For Whom is the Center Designed?

Higher education professionals anywhere will be able to access ICCSIA’s web-based library of resources, including results of applied research.

How Will the Center Operate?

Effective professional development and training experiences; proven tools and materials; trusted and credible advice; and focused, problem-solving research are the essential foundation for capacity-building and institutional preparation — but few campuses can generate or mobilize all of those elements alone. ICSSIA will offer programs and services that not only fill the gap, but increase the potential of educators and institutions.