.png)
2025 Conference
The theme for this year's conference is:
Collaboration!
The NJAIR Steering Committee is pleased to sponsor the 2025 virtual conference.
Conference Date: Thursday, July 24th.
The NJAIR virtual conferences are primarily designed for our New Jersey community. However, we invite attendees from anywhere to join the event. This empowers us to showcase IR, IE, and assessment efforts at New Jersey institutions of higher education beyond its borders.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with our professional community, and beyond!
Regulatory Issues
NJOSHE Updates
Chad L. May
Director of Research and Analysis
New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE)
During this session we will present some major updates for the 2025-26 research and reporting period that will impact institutions. We will focus on federal IPEDS survey changes and any associated changes to State level data collections. We will focus on specific state-level data collection activities and preview some upcoming changes and issues for discussion. We will also preview and review some current research activities and deliverables developed by the OSHE research team.
Artificial Intelligence
Designing an AI-Powered IR Chatbot to Foster Cross-Departmental Collaboration and Data Access
Xilin Zhang
-
Associate Director of Institutional Research
-
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Dong Dinh and Eugene Deess
-
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Institutional Research (IR) offices are often the central hub for data requests, reports, and analysis—but collaboration with other departments can be delayed by fragmented data access, inconsistent terminology, or reliance on manual workflows. This presentation introduces the conceptual design of an AI-powered IR Chatbot built to unify data access and streamline collaboration across campus units. Designed as a smart assistant, the chatbot can respond to natural language queries, provide real-time access to key institutional metrics, and guide users to relevant data sources or documentation. By incorporating institution-specific business logic, access permissions, and frequently used reporting definitions, the chatbot enhances both efficiency and transparency. The session will discuss technical design considerations, data governance implications, and how this tool can reinforce a culture of collaboration between IR, academic departments, student affairs, and senior leadership. Attendees will leave with a framework to begin designing similar solutions tailored to their own institutional needs.
Artificial Intelligence
Using AI to compare Survey Submissions from different years to identify trends and changes
Lathish Balaji Baskaran
-
Data Scientist
-
Rowan University
Every year, Institutional Research teams submit hundreds of external surveys and ensuring consistency from one year to the next is critical. At Rowan University, we found that comparing past and current submissions (especially in PDF format) was taking up a lot of time and often required tedious, manual review.
To help with this, we built a web-based tool that uses AI and allows side-by-side comparisons of PDF reports from previous and current years. It highlights differences in data, wording, making it easier to spot when numbers have dropped unexpectedly, jumped to unusually high values, or are completely missing and also gives a percentage difference between the previous year to the current year. This helps us quickly catch potential reporting errors, track meaningful trends, and flag anything that looks off before submissions go out.
The tool was developed using Python and Django web framework, we leveraged Azure's Open AI for the AI models and also Llama for document extraction. It's designed to be easy for any team member to use. Just select the survey and upload the files, and the system will show you where the differences are without any extra steps.
Artificial Intelligence
Using AI to Improve Data Accessibility
Samyukta Alapati
-
Associate Director
-
Rowan University
Bharathwaj Vijayakumar
-
Assistant Vice President, OIRA
-
Rowan University
At Rowan University, we know that getting timely answers from institutional data can be challenging, especially when those answers are buried in reports or require technical skills to retrieve. That’s why we’ve started developing a set of AI-powered tools to make it easier for faculty, staff, and administrators to get the information they need, when they need it.
One of our key projects is a conversational AI tool that allows users to ask everyday questions like “How many students are enrolled in Nursing this term?” or “Which majors are growing the fastest?” and get real-time answers without needing to write a single line of code or run a complex report. The goal is to put data directly into the hands of the people who use it for advising, planning, and making decisions.
Behind the scenes, this tool uses Python, ThoughtSpot, and web technologies. But on the front end, it’s about simplicity and usability, removing technical barriers so users can focus on taking action, not figuring out how to run a query applying various filters on dashboards.
Attendees will leave with practical strategies and tools they can apply in their own offices to improve data accessibility and increase efficiency.
Student Success
Student Success Champion Collaboration
Kristen Lindsay
-
Director of Institutional Research and Assessment
-
The University of Findlay
Bridging student and academic affairs, our collaborative project at The University of Findlay incorporates two items that impact change aligned with UF’s strategic plan: Invite, Engage and Inspire students. First, we endeavored to better understand student retention through building a more authentic picture of the undergraduate experience. Focusing on first-year students, we investigated what keeps them engaged. We determined our “sticky” factor (what does UF offer that makes students want to stay and strive toward graduation). Second, a formidable challenge our students face is academic preparedness for success in the classroom. While participating in the UF Preparedness Summit, visiting dozens of meetings and listening to many frustrations, we challenged our colleagues’ tendency to bemoan the students we wish we had and challenge them to embrace the students we do have. Incorporating the outcomes of our “stickiness” investigation and our preparedness campaign, our project shaped campus-wide retention initiatives.
Student Success
Supporting Student Success through Strategic Analytics and AI Tools
Neva Lozada
-
Vice President for Administration
-
Kean University
Hong Gao and Nima Sherpa
-
Kean University
Kean University is dedicated to enhancing student success by improving retention and graduation rates. The Division of Strategic Analytics and Data Illumination (SADI) partners with the Student Success Center and Academic Advising to identify key factors influencing student outcomes. After three years of collaborative efforts, the first-semester retention rate for the Fall 2024 cohort reached a historic high, and the first-year retention rate for the Fall 2023 cohort increased by five percentage points compared to three years prior. This presentation will highlight how SADI delivers meaningful insights through data visualization and strategic analytics to inform student support initiatives. In addition, we will share findings from a recent study on student major changes, which incorporates the use of an AI tool (ChatGPT) to analyze patterns and inform decision-making.
Student Success
Leveraging Navigate360 to Close Graduation Gaps: A Data-Informed Approach to Assessment and Student Success at Kean University
Gillian Scott
-
Director of Student Data Systems
-
Kean University
Colleges and universities continue to face the challenge of closing persistent graduation gaps among our students, while simultaneously streamlining assessment practices and ensuring institutional effectiveness. At Kean University, we recognized the opportunity to address these challenges through our strategic, university-wide implementation of Navigate360.
This session examines how Kean University utilizes Navigate360 as more than just a student support and engagement platform—it serves as a comprehensive data ecosystem that enables ongoing assessment, fosters cross-departmental collaboration, and promotes student-centered outcomes. Navigate360 is fully integrated into key areas across the university, including accessibility services, professional advising, and learning support.
We will share how our teams use system-generated engagement and usage data to track student progress, guide interventions, and measure impact across student success initiatives. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for integrating similar functions of Navigate360 at their institution to help streamline business processes and enhance student support.
This session is ideal for institutional researchers, assessment professionals, and student success leaders seeking to make better use of existing platforms to inform data-driven strategies and promote outcomes that align with departmental and institutional goals.
Keynote Address
Key Issues and Learnings from the New Jersey State-Wide Data System
Stephanie Walsh, Ph.D.
-
Director of NJSDS
-
Rutgers University
The New Jersey Statewide Data System (NJSDS) is the State of New Jersey’s centralized longitudinal platform for administrative data. NJSDS connects people to data to improve policy outcomes by providing access to information in support of research and evaluation.
Technology and Collaboration
The Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of IR Collaboration
Amy Kusmiesz
-
Institutional Research Analyst
-
Rowan University
Institutional Research (IR) offices face growing demands from recurring surveys, profiles, and ad-hoc reporting. This session will highlight how our IR team at Rowan University uses collaborative workflows, tools, and technologies to meet these challenges effectively. We’ll walk through the “Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How” of collaboration—who we work with, what tools we use (like Google Drive and shared documents), where collaboration happens, when it fits into our workflow, why it matters for accuracy and timeliness, and how we foster a collaborative culture. Attendees will leave with practical strategies and tools they can apply in their own offices to improve collaboration, ensure data integrity, and increase efficiency.
Technology and Collaboration
Bringing a project home: “In-sourcing” the Staff Engagement Survey at Princeton
Jon Stoessel
-
Institutional Research Analyst
-
Princeton University
Resources (human and monetary) are at a premium. Bandwidth is at a premium. But, so is the local knowledge necessary to shepherd a long-term assessment project from pre-planning through facilitating insights. In Fall 2019, the decision was made to bring a Staff Engagement Survey project in-house, transferring the main core of tasks from an outside vendor to the Office of Institutional Research. In partnership with team members in Human Resources, we have executed two projects (2021 and 2024) from questionnaire development through data communications with mostly positive results. Namely, the production of 30+ cabinet / department level reports and supporting resources in addition to evidence that the data are useful and used. But why couch positive results with mostly? What wrench (or wrenches…lots of wrenches) could be thrown in over the course of 16 months from the first planning meeting through the communication / sharing of data?
Data Governance
Chaos to Clarity: Cleaning Up Program Data Through Collaborative Cataloging
Shante Walker
-
Institutional Research Analyst
-
Rowan University
Inconsistent and outdated data, whether in academic program listings or Institutional Research surveys, can obstruct effective decision-making, strategic planning, and external reporting. At Rowan University, the Office of Institutional Research and Analytics (OIRA) is tackling this challenge head-on through a collaborative data cataloging initiative using Informatica’s Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC).
By working closely with the Registrar, Rowan Online, University Scheduling, and Information Resources & Technology (IRT), OIRA is building a comprehensive metadata repository to document business definitions, track data lineage, and clarify stewardship for both academic program data and IR survey elements. This approach ensures transparency, consistency, and alignment across stakeholders and systems.
This session will highlight three high-impact initiatives:
* The Accurate Active Program List: A cleanup effort to document, define, and validate academic program offerings through cross-departmental collaboration.
* Reorganizing Online Programs: An initiative with Rowan Online to reflect evolving modalities and classification logic, ensuring internal systems match external survey submissions and web communications.
* Survey Metadata Cataloging: A new effort to catalog all institutional research surveys, such as IPEDS, Common Data Set, and U.S. News, by mapping each question to its underlying data elements, clarifying definitions, lineage, and use across multiple reporting contexts.
Attendees will see how collaborative data stewardship, consistent terminology, and intelligent metadata management tools can untangle complexity, improve internal coordination, and enhance the institution’s external visibility and reporting accuracy.
Data Governance
Data Governance at West Chester University: Path and Promise
Edward Fingland
-
Systems Architect
-
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Amanda Thomas and Rommel Guadalupe
-
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Join us as we share how our institution's transition to a new Student Information System (SIS) served as the catalyst for launching a comprehensive data governance initiative. This session will explore the drivers behind the effort, including the challenges we faced and the organizational need for improved data stewardship and standards. We’ll walk through our progress in drafting a data governance policy, defining roles and responsibilities across campus, and creating a shared data glossary.
In addition to our deliverables, we’ll share practical strategies for building cross-functional engagement, overcoming resistance, and maintaining momentum. Attendees will leave with a roadmap of lessons learned, organizational insights, and actionable tips for launching or strengthening their own data governance efforts.