College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences 2015-2016 Catalog

99 we maintain relationships with universities nationwide with large undergraduate human development/family studies programs, as many of our students come to us with this background, referred by a trusted faculty member. We make it a point to build relationships with other universities nationwide, including HBCU’s and other majority minority institutions. We also offer open houses, open to the community, and publicized through our website, where prospective students can talk with faculty and current students. Our students and graduates themselves are a primary source of prospective students for us, as they recommend the program to friends and colleagues. We strive to recruit a diverse student body, in terms of age, experience, sexual orientation, race, class, culture, gender, and national origin. We are transparent about our values and what we offer, providing all prospective students with a statement of our core diversity/inclusion values, and publicizing both our licensure exam pass rates and our postgraduate employment statistics. Retention Policy As noted in the MS in MFT Educational Outcomes, the NSU MS in the MFT program demonstrates a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and prepares students for the clinical practice of family therapy, maintaining a high level of graduation and postgraduate success in the field. Our retention policy balances our commitment to the best outcome for individual students, with the need to maintain a positive reputation for our graduates to ensure success in the field. The program director attends closely to the progress of individual students during their first semester. Most of our attrition occurs during this first semester, when students are not able to succeed academically or have underestimated the commitment required for a graduate program. In this event, the program director meets with the student and the faculty teaching the student that semester. Every effort is made to work towards a mutually agreeable outcome, as for example a transfer to a less academically rigorous, nonclinical program. At the end of the first three semesters, when the students transition to their external practicums, the program director again consults with faculty as to the progress of individual students. Students having academic difficulties or low grades would have been noted before this point, but if students have performed well academically but the faculty has concerns about their clinical ability, Students may be asked to take additional internal practicums above and beyond the minimum requirement. The program director and the faculty work with individual students to maintain their progress towards graduation. If at any time, however, it becomes clear a student is interpersonally, ethically, or academically unqualified for the practice of marriage and family therapy, that student will be dismissed from the program. Our goal is a high level of retention, but balanced at all times with the need to maintain the integrity of the program and the profession. Student Achievement The NSU MS in MFT program has a policy of continuous assessment of students and of graduate success. 1. Assessment of students includes course evaluations and grades; practicum evaluations (both on site and faculty supervisor evaluations); and comprehensive examination results. We also maintain close contact with external supervisors, at agency sites, and obtain their evaluations of our students. (See chart below for aggregated data; we also obtain individual evaluations of each student from their external, on site supervisor as well as faculty supervisor). 2. Once students are graduated, we maintain data on graduation rates, licensure exam pass rates, and job placement rates in the field. We are able to verify graduation rates from our