He’s out there watching you. He knows when you’re not going to school and it’s his job to inform the university if the student population shrinks every year.

Students probably don’t know who Craig Barnard is or have any clue how he affects the university and their lives on a daily basis, but Barnard is out to change that and improve NIU’s educational structure.

An assessment coordinator works with each college and department to help them design and operate assessment programs. He interviews past graduates to learn their thoughts on NIU. He also works with outside accreditation agencies to improve NIU’s reputation among independent evaluators.

Barnard also has implemented a new study of one-year dropouts in the hopes of improving retention rates.

“One of the projects that I will be pursing in tandem with J. Daniel House, director of institutional research, is a survey of non-returning freshmen. These students, who have completed one year at NIU and then did not return for a second year, have a story to tell as to why they chose not to return,” he said.

This isn’t Barnard’s first stint with NIU. He worked here in the early 1980s in NIU’s Career Planning and Placement office. Most recently, he worked as associate director of testing at the largest medical school in the nation, the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago.

The university is happy to have Barnard.

“He’s got excellent experience and he brings a lot of good ideas for advancing our goals for assessment,” said Virginia Cassidy, assistant provost for academic planning and development.

As far as students are concerned, they hope he brings positive changes.

“I really hope he can improve the quality of my education and general way of life here as well as improve this school’s shabby academic reputation,” said Isaac Gonzalez, a freshman computer science major.

Barnard doesn’t see that.

“In the short time I have been here, I continue to be very impressed with the quality of both faculty and administration at NIU, and the dedication of all at Northern to producing qualified, competent and successful graduates,” he said.

Barnard’s office is located in the Campus Life Building, Room 111.