Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

6/03/2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- Northwestern State University has received a reward of $50,763 from the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System. The reward was for NSU's efforts to raise quality and performance. Since July 2002, Northwestern has received $525,732 for specific priority initiatives including teacher education redesign and enrollment management.

"Northwestern has made tremendous progress over the last seven years by focusing on ways to better serve our students," said NSU president Randall J. Webb. "Because of the work done by our dedicated faculty and staff, we are recruiting better students who are being prepared to enter the work force."

Other UL System schools benefiting from the awards were Grambling State University, Louisiana Tech University, McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and University of Louisiana at Monroe.

"During this time of tight budgets, it is important that our universities are investing resources in what counts," UL System President Sally Clausen said. "These awards serve as an incentive for our universities to focus on academic and accountability measures. As a result, graduation rates and retention rates are up and academic program accreditation rates are at an all-time high."

The awards were based on seven areas of performance criteria on which the universities submitted data for distribution of a total of $433,344. The criteria included: academic program accreditation rates, freshman-to-sophomore retention rates, six-year graduation rates and reduction of remedial credit hours taught. Other criteria include: the percentage of TOPS students eligible to return, accomplishments in the Unique Areas of Excellence and performance on financial and compliance audits.

"Northwestern was the first public institution in Louisiana to achieve 100 percent accreditation of eligible academic programs," said Webb. "Our Unique Areas of Excellence have continued to shine by bringing national recognition to Northwestern,"

This year, the UL System has awarded $4.7 million in awards to its institutions.
Funding for the performance awards was made available to the UL System through special allocations by the Legislature and Board of Regents.

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