Doug Baker is 6 or 7 years old, if his memory serves right.

He is on a trip with his grandma from Hood River, Ore., to Monache, Wash., to visit family. Stopped at a cafeteria, Baker piles food atop his plate and sits by his grandma.

“I think your eyes are bigger than your stomach,” she tells him, eyeing the plate of food.

Baker, who celebrates the anniversary of his inauguration today, recounted the story at lunch Feb. 20 in Chicago; he had stopped to eat after a morning appearance on WGN where he talked about higher education. Up next on his agenda was talking at the City Club of Chicago; then, he was to speak about the importance of internships and mentoring with a group of alumni and business students and appear on WTTW.

“I just remember the comment because at the end she was right,” he said, remembering that he was unable to finish the plate.

But, when asked Monday if his grandmother’s observation could apply to the sprawling changes he’s pushed for at NIU, Baker focused on how his ideas — the Master Plan Thesis, Bold Futures and more — are formed in response to changes within higher education.

“You know, all of higher education is facing these big challenges. This is not a static environment,” he said. “… We need to think about these big issues and how are we going to operate in this rapidly changing world where state support may be continuing to decline and we need to get students ready for a very competitive global economy.”

Baker has pushed for changes to combat those challenges: tearing down Douglas Hall and extending Lucinda Avenue, revamping the administration and pushing for NIU to develop deeper relationships with its alumni, among other things. NIU has seen “some cultural shifts” during that time, Baker said.

“I think there’s a better understanding of the keystone goal of student career success and what we need to do to move forward on critical issues in student success, retention, recruitment,” Baker said.

During the next year, Baker said there is a “clear focus” on what NIU needs to do: link faculty, students and staff “with the outside world” as part of his “triangle strategy” to promote learning and teaching and build relationships.

As he looks ahead to next year, Baker outlined four goals: promote student career success by implementing the Strategic Plan Framework, continue to improve retention, work on recruitment activities for the fall and fill two vice president positions.

Strategic Plan Framework

One of Baker’s next steps will be implementing the Strategic Plan Framework, which provides information on NIU’s mission and strategies. The framework will be used by departments and administrators to make changes in line with NIU’s goal of promoting student career success.

A Nov. 3 draft of the framework showcases the “triangle strategy.”

Baker said the framework should be released next week. After that, an on-campus retreat in early December will bring together university leaders to talk about resources and connections NIU needs to make.

“Some areas will need to recruit more, others will need to focus on retention, some will need to focus on more efficient processes,” Baker said. “But, we want to have that dialogue with chairs and other department administrators about how to think about what the opportunities are and model them and see which ones make the most sense.”

Student career success

Baker’s plans have centered around student career success, which he calls NIU’s “keystone goal.” At his inauguration, he set a target for NIU: Ensure students find a job in their field of interest — if they want one — within six months of graduation. That’s still his goal, Baker said Monday.

“We want to get them ready for life and careers and then, in the process of that, they’re going to need some hands-on experiences like internships … so we want to work with them and our alumni to make sure students get jobs when they graduate,” he said.

To meet that goal, Baker has pushed for the university and its students to work with alumni. There are more than 185,000 alumni living and working in the Chicagoland area, according to the NIU Alumni Association website.

Alumni like Jeff Yordon, for whom the Yordon Center is named, have become involved with Baker’s efforts: On Feb. 20, he said he was mentoring four students.

“Everybody wants to help a friend,” Yordon said. “People who are in a position where they can make that decision, I think we need to act now.”

Enrollment

While Baker has emphasized the need for NIU to build its enrollment through recruitment and improved retention, his goal is to see enrollment be flat — or, without a significant increase or decrease — in fall 2015.

NIU’s fall enrollment decreased from 25,254 in 2007 to 20,611 this semester. But, the drop in enrollment from fall 2013 to this semester — 527 students — was the smallest decrease in NIU’s enrollment in five years. Baker said NIU is at a “turning point” with enrollment.

NIU saw its freshman retention rate rise from 66 percent in fall 2013 to 71 percent this semester, and the administration aims to see retention between the fall and spring semesters grow from 90 percent to 95 percent.

NIU has been reexamining its financial aid packages and has reached out to develop bonds with community colleges, among other things, to improve enrollment.

Administration

Baker’s first year saw an administrative shakeup, with vice president roles being combined, eliminated or having responsibilities changed.

Baker said NIU must hire a vice president of Administration and Finance to “work on our budget and budget model and work to be as effective and efficient as we can in all those areas.” A to-be-hired vice president of Advancement will focus on how NIU uses its relationship with alumni to see how they can help NIU “with fundraising activities.”

There is a “tentative plan” to have candidates for vice president of Administration and Finance on campus before the end of the calendar year, but Baker said that may not be possible with the vice president of Advancement candidates.