CASE STUDY · HIGHER EDUCATION
From hours of HLC evidence gathering to a single report
The University of Nebraska at Omaha runs its strategic plan, its HLC accreditation evidence and its institutional risk management register out of one system. Strategic plan reporting now takes about 30 minutes a cycle. This is how the chief of staff’s office got a busy campus to adopt it.
Arts and Sciences
78%
Business
64%
Education
41%
Public Affairs
55%
IS and Technology
22%
HLC 4.C
Risk: enrollment
NU pillar 2
strategic plan reporting per cycle, down from hours of email and spreadsheet work
to adoption across deans, vice chancellors and associate deans
for the strategic plan, HLC evidence, risk mitigation and NU System alignment
AT A GLANCE
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Organization
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Type
Public metropolitan research university
Part of
University of Nebraska System, four campuses
Champion
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff
Replaced
Email chains and ad hoc spreadsheets
Also tracked in VisionSync
HLC accreditation evidence, institutional risk mitigation, NU System pillar alignment
Adoption approach
Central team entered initiatives on leaders’ behalf, then leaders reviewed and reacted
THE CHALLENGE
What does it take to prove a strategic plan is actually moving?
Many accredited institutions run into a similar structural problem. The strategic plan lives in one place and the accreditation evidence lives in another, so every reporting cycle means rebuilding by hand what the institution already knows.
As a metropolitan research university inside the University of Nebraska System, the same body of work has to answer to the NU System’s strategic plan, to UNO’s own institutional priorities, to HLC’s criteria, and to the university’s role in the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Institutions. Before VisionSync there was no single place holding all of it, so when leadership needed to know where an initiative stood, the only way to find out was to interrupt someone.
None of that reflects a lack of effort. It is what capable institutions do with the tools they have. But it has a cost that compounds, and Keristiena named it plainly.
"It was a lot of manual work. You would have to ask people that really have busy jobs, like deans, to stop what you’re doing right now and respond to this email and figure out what’s going on in their college in relation to a particular topic."
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Answers in a dozen formats
Responses came back however each person had time to send them, then got compiled into spreadsheets that were out of date almost immediately.
Accreditation rebuilt by hand
UNO’s accreditation liaison assembled the HLC evidence base each cycle, pulling together work the institution had already done but could not easily point to.
Risk answered by email
When the NU System’s audit office produced its risk heat maps, UNO emailed leaders and manually compiled what mitigation strategies existed.
“When the data is not easily accessible, it’s not going to be a priority for anybody to report on strategic planning.”
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
THE ROLLOUT
How do you get deans and vice chancellors to actually use it?
UNO came onto VisionSync as part of the NU System’s rollout. What made the adoption work was how the chief of staff’s office ran it, and Keristiena is direct about the fact that this part is not the software’s job.
"The devil is in the details. How you adopt, I think, is very important for the success of VisionSync."
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
01
Brief everyone before anything is built
The whole leadership team knew what VisionSync was and how it would be used before it appeared.
02
Carry the setup burden centrally
Keristiena’s team entered the initiatives on leaders’ behalf, based on what they already understood about the plan, rather than asking deans to build from scratch on a tight timeline.
03
Hand each leader a printout to react to
Reviewing something is a smaller ask than building something. That one change moved leaders from figuring it out to responding to it.
04
Frame it around their goals
She positioned VisionSync as something that would advance each college’s own priorities rather than satisfy a system requirement.
"We tried to minimize the burden on people. Even if it’s a great product, if you tell somebody to drop everything, you’re going to create some frustration."
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
"Where some campuses go wrong is thinking that VisionSync just checks the mark for the system. If that’s what we’re doing, then we’re involving a lot of busy people in a time-consuming endeavor."
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
The software part was quick. Getting a busy campus to trust it is the real work, and that is the part UNO got right.
HOW IT WORKS AT UNO
What does UNO track in VisionSync?
Using tags, the same initiative can carry its alignment to HLC criteria, to NU System pillars, and to UNO’s primary institutional risks at the same time. One entry, several audiences, no duplicate systems and no second round of data-gathering exercise when someone asks a question.
Strategic plan
HLC criteria
Risk mitigation
NU System pillars
"If a unit on campus is doing something that’s a mitigation of one of our primary risks, it should be in the system. They can just tag it."
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Evidence report
Filtered: HLC criteria
Advising redesign for first-year students
HLC 3.D
On track
Faculty workload and course assessment review
HLC 4.B
On track
Enrollment forecasting model refresh
HLC 4.C
At risk
Metropolitan partnership expansion
HLC 1.C
On track
Shared services financial capacity study
HLC 4.C
On track
Owners, progress and dates travel with every row. Illustrative data.
THE CHANGE
What changed, line by line
Data integrity
Email chains and ad hoc spreadsheets, out of date on arrival
One system of record, current on a cadence
Reporting flow
Hours of chasing and gathering updates
About 30 minutes per cycle from a direct export
Accreditation
Evidence base rebuilt by hand each cycle
Initiatives tagged to HLC criteria and pulled as a report
Risk mitigation
Email every leader, compile the answers manually
Tagged in place, reportable on demand
Ownership
Hundreds of initiatives in spreadsheets and documents
Status updates on a cadence, progress visible to everyone
THE RESULTS
Evidence on demand, and accountability by default
01 · ACCREDITATION
HLC evidence arrives as a report, not an assignment
UNO’s accreditation liaison used to assemble the evidence base by hand every cycle. Now users tag initiatives against each HLC criteria and the system provides a report showing exactly which work supports each criterion.
“Our accreditation liaison would do hours of work to get the evidence for HLC reports ready. Now, I just send her a report with the initiatives that provide evidence for how we support the HLC criteria.”
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
02 · DAY TO DAY
Reporting takes about 30 minutes
What once meant chasing emails and compiling spreadsheets, or quietly not happening at all, is now an export and a review.
“Reporting takes maybe 30 minutes. I download the Excel file and work with it.”
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
A gap between institutional and unit goals became visible
With institutional targets and unit-level plans side by side, UNO is building a process to close the distance between them.
“VisionSync has confirmed that we have a problem between our high-level goals and what’s happening in the units.”
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Leadership came on board in the first quarter
Deans, vice chancellors and associate deans were providing updates within the first quarter after launch.
03 · RISK
Risk mitigation is a tag, not an email campaign
When a unit’s work mitigates one of UNO’s primary institutional risks, it gets tagged as such where it already lives. So when the NU System’s audit office produces its heat map, Keristiena answers with structured data instead of a round of emails and a scramble to compile the replies.
“Instead of having to ask them what they’re doing, I can just run a report and find out exactly where they’re at. It makes it a lot easier.”
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
04 · ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability became part of the rhythm
We asked what would happen if VisionSync went away
“It would remove transparency and accountability. Right now, you can just go in and see exactly what’s going on.”
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
INTERACTIVE TOUR
See it the way UNO does
Every initiative in one place, tagged to the plan, to HLC criteria and to institutional risks, so a report for any one of them is a filter away.
YEAR TWO
From evidence to alignment
Year two is about depth. Keristiena is focused on connecting unit-level goals to institutional targets so the gap VisionSync surfaced actually closes, expanding use into college-level accreditation processes, and spotting where multiple units are working on similar initiatives and could be working together instead.
UNO is also revamping its website to publish VisionSync data openly, and continues to feature strategic planning in the biannual campus forums that draw 300 to 400 people. That turnout says something about the institution rather than the software.
Close the gap
Connect unit-level goals to institutional targets.
College accreditation
Extend tagging into college-level processes.
Find the overlaps
Spot units working on the same thing separately.
"People want to be engaged. There is this desire to be part of a bigger picture that everybody has. It doesn’t matter what level you are, you want to be part of that conversation."
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING THIS
What she would tell another university
Her advice is the same thing that made UNO’s rollout work. Do not treat it as a checkbox. Show people how it serves their goals, carry the setup burden for them, and set timelines people can actually meet.
"Cannot stop emphasizing the importance of making clear how VisionSync can support people across the institution."
Keristiena Dodge, Chief of Staff, University of Nebraska at Omaha
That thinking shaped how we approach implementation across the NU System, and we are grateful UNO was willing to figure it out with us.
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FAQ
Questions we get about this story
Eight answers, kept in the page source so search engines and AI assistants can read them without clicking.
How does VisionSync support HLC accreditation?
Tag any initiative with the HLC criteria it provides evidence for. When the self study or interim report comes around, pull a report of the tagged initiatives with owners, progress and dates already attached. At UNO the chief of staff sends that report directly to the accreditation liaison, who previously assembled the evidence base by hand each cycle.
How long does strategic plan reporting take at UNO?
About 30 minutes per cycle. Keristiena Dodge exports the data from VisionSync and works from that file. The previous process meant emailing deans and vice chancellors, waiting for responses in mixed formats, and compiling them into a spreadsheet, or skipping the report entirely.
Can one initiative serve accreditation, risk and the strategic plan at once?
Yes, through tags. A single initiative at UNO can carry its alignment to HLC criteria, to NU System pillars, and to a primary institutional risk at the same time. One entry answers several offices without duplicate systems.
How did UNO get deans and vice chancellors to adopt it?
The chief of staff’s office briefed leadership before anything was built, entered the initiatives on leaders’ behalf, and then handed each leader a printout to react to rather than a blank system to fill in. Deans, vice chancellors and associate deans were providing updates within the first quarter after launch.
Does VisionSync replace our accreditation management system?
No. VisionSync holds the strategic plan and the evidence trail that comes out of it. Institutions that run a dedicated accreditation platform keep it. What changes is that the strategic planning evidence for criteria like HLC 4.C is already assembled rather than reconstructed.
What does UNO track in VisionSync besides the strategic plan?
HLC accreditation evidence, institutional risk mitigation strategies, and alignment to the University of Nebraska System’s pillars.
Is this only for large research universities?
No. UNO is a metropolitan research university inside a four-campus system, which is on the more complex end. The same structure works for a single college, and seat brackets start at 30 users.
How long does implementation take?
Most institutions go live within 90 days, including plan review, a dedicated sandbox, role-based training and the first report out of the platform.
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