Doug Baker enters his second semester as NIU president after using his first months on the job to put into motion plans he hopes will improve the university’s infrastructure.

Since Baker’s Nov. 13 inauguration, he has met with officials from Sycamore and DeKalb, where he said he received positive feedback for what has been done. This week marks the start of Baker’s second semester as NIU’s president.

“I’ve helped the university to focus on student success more than anything,” Baker said. “Student success during and after school is very important to us.”

During his inauguration speech, Baker laid out goals for the university that centered around his “four pillars:” student career success, a thriving community, financial and program liability and ethically inspired leadership.

Baker proposed reaching out to alumni and pairing them with students for a mentoring program, and said the university should aim to see each graduate hired in his or her field of interest within six months of graduation.

The next thing atop the president’s list is turning around enrollment by working on increasing enrollment and retention. NIU’s total fall enrollment has fallen every year since 2009, and enrollment sat at 21,138 this fall.

“I think he has proved that we have a great opportunity for change at NIU through his Bold Futures workshop and his retention summit,” said English professor Michael Day. “The main issue for NIU students, as I see it, is finances. We need to find ways to help students afford to come to NIU and stay at NIU.”

Mike Theodore, Student Association chief of Staff, said the best plan put into motion by Baker has been his efforts to make NIU’s budget transparent.

Theodore said he thinks the fall semester showed how good Baker’s leadership will be and how bright the future of the university is under his presidency.

“I think that the most important thing President Baker needs to do now is making sure that all of the divisions are following the agenda and taking it seriously,” Theodore said.