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Published in The Spectator, the student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire;
Thursday, March 15, 2001
Survey
will identify student activities
By Bill Olson
A survey that examines an individual’s
activities and level of involvement at UW-Eau Claire is in the mailboxes
of 1,400 students.
Meeting students’ needs is one of the goals for using a student
survey, said Ronald Satz, Eau Claire provost and vice chancellor of
academic affairs.
The National Survey of Student Engagement is administered by the Indiana
University Center for Post-secondary Research and Planning.
It has been mailed to 700 freshmen and 700 seniors chosen at random,
said Kay Magadance, Eau Claire’s institutional planner.
The survey asks questions about students’ engagement in various
activities during their college career, Magadance said. It contains
questions about such things as students’ involvement with their
professors, the amount of work they do inside and outside of class and
the kind of classroom activities they have.
Freshmen and seniors take the national survey so the university can
compare the experiences of new students to those completing their
undergraduate work, she said.
“We hope it will tell us things about our curriculum and how students
are involved in activities to see if there are things we might improve
in terms of student-faculty collaboration,” Magadance said.
She said the survey also might help Eau Claire improve its student
retention rate.
“We have very good retention rates, but we continue to look at ways to
improve them,” she said.
“The feeling is if the students are more engaged with the faculty,
they are more likely to stay here and complete a four-year degree,”
Magadance said.
The survey also is a way to examine why students leave.
Satz said students might leave the university for many good reasons,
such as to pursue a major not offered here, like engineering, or for
personal reasons not related to the university.
But retention is a serious issue because the faculty and staff want to
meet the students’ needs, he said.
One concern is that courses and advising that students need are
available to them, Satz said.
“And if students are meeting any kind of roadblocks along the way, we
identify those issues and concerns,” Satz said.
“If students are having difficulty, we want to pinpoint where that is
happening so we have a better understanding of it,” he said.
Taking time to complete and return the survey will help the university
provide enhanced educational opportunities for students, Satz said.
Magadance said the survey results, expected in June, also present a way
to inform prospective students about the kinds of activities going on
and how important they are to student learning.
The survey also could be used as a supplement to the U.S. News and
World Report college rankings, she said.
The magazine ranks colleges and universities on several issues. Some
aspects included in the survey are the academic reputation, retention of
students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources,
alumni giving and the difference between actual and expected graduation
rates, according to an article by Robert J. Morse and Samuel Flanigan on
the U.S. News and World Report Web site.
The survey results, according to Indiana University’s Web site,
www.indiana.edu/~nsse/, will provide an estimate of how undergraduates
spend their time and what they gain from attending college.
The Indiana Web site estimates that 330 colleges and universities will
participate in the survey this year, up from 276 last year when it was
introduced.
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