CAS Standards

NODA is a member of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS)!

As a member organization, NODA provides the latest CAS standards for New Student Orientation Programs and Parent & Family Programs free of charge to our members. Through NODA Connect, you can access the CAS Informational Flyer and use the discount code included to receive free CAS Standards & Guidelines! As a reminder, you will need to have an active NODA membership in order to download.

New Student Orientation Programs

New Student Orientation Programs (NSOP) must facilitate the transition of new students into the institution; prepare students for the institution’s educational opportunities and student responsibilities; and initiate the integration of new students into the academic, intellectual, cultural, and social facets of the institution.

As part of the Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) suite of New Student Orientation Programs resources, this document conveys the set of specific standards and guidelines that apply to this aspect of higher education. Common to all sets of standards developed by and provided for sale from CAS, they include the embedded CAS General Standards. All standards are broken down into 12 vital areas of operations to which those leading the functional area must attend.

Access the CAS Flyer here

Parent & Family Programs

Parent and Family Programs (PFP) must build partnerships and relationships between parents and families of students and the institution to support shared goals of student learning, development, and success.

As part of the Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) suite of Parent and Family Programs resources, this document conveys the set of specific standards and guidelines that apply to this aspect of higher education. Common to all sets of standards developed by and provided for sale from CAS, they include the embedded CAS General Standards. All standards are broken down into 12 vital areas of operations to which those leading the functional area must attend.

Purchase from CAS STORE

Additional CAS Standards & Self-Assessment Guides

The book CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education (also known as the “Blue Book”) provides an introduction to CAS, its mission, initiatives, and the principles upon which it was founded. Individual functional area standards are accompanied by introductory contextual statements, along with the CAS Learning and Development Outcomes, the CAS Characteristics of Individual Excellence, and the CAS Statement of Shared Ethical Principles. Both the book and individual functional areas are available for purchase in the CAS Store.

The CAS Self-Assessment Guides for all 46 sets of CAS Standards are available for purchase as downloadable electronic documents for the online CAS Store. These downloadable assessment workbooks include the standards and guidelines along with a series of “criterion measure” statements used to judge the level of program compliance with the standard.  

CAS First-Year Experience Cross Functional Framework

If you are involved in administering First-Year Experience Programs, you can check out the CAS FYE Cross Functional Framework. The CFF for First-Year Experiences (FYE) was produced by CAS, in partnership with the National Resource Center for First-Year Experiences and Students in Transition (NRT), and is essential to the work of people involved with first-year students, programs, and services. The CFF for FYE lays out a flexible, high quality framework for coordinating integrated and intentional campus-wide efforts to support first-year student success. Institutions looking for guidelines to structure partnerships with departments, arrange horizontal leadership, and develop buy-in and sustainability of first-year efforts can look to the CAS CFF for FYE as a trusted resource for best practice developed by experts and promoted by a reliable organization that, itself, is based on principles of cross-functional collaboration.

You can find the CAS FYE Cross Functional Framework for purchase here.