Another e-mail from Susan Kashack, associate vice president for communications and marketing reached the students Fri., May 8. Unlike the customer service surveys that students may be accustomed to, this survey was created and sent to directly benefit the students.
This is the students' chance to speak up about why they may or may not be satisfied with SSU. The student retention survey, being called "Are you happy at SSU? If not, why?" focuses on improving student satisfaction.
"We feel that sometimes students are over-surveyed," said Dean of Science and Technology, Saeid Rahimi. "If students only take one of those surveys they're sent, this one is the one to take."
Students receive e-mail notices from Kashack daily, and most have become accustomed to ignoring or deleting them. These e-mails comprise a wide range of topics including police service updates, library surveys, H1N1 flu, turning off water on campus and mountain lion sightings.
"I would be surprised if 10 percent of students actually do the survey," said Tate Golden, junior in the kinesiology department.
Rahimi wants to assure students that this survey focuses on answering the question, "why do students leave SSU to finish their education?"
Its intent is to increase student satisfaction and reduce the departure of students by looking into the habits of students and what they are doing in their spare time.
Questions such as, "do students go home during the semester, and if so how often?" will be important for the survey committee to analyze student satisfaction.
It is not uncommon to hear of students leaving SSU before graduation, often to attend other California State Universities (CSU) or private schools, and this is commonly associated with their dissatisfaction of the school. President Arminana's standards are to make SSU comparable to an Ivy League campus.
President Arminana passed the task of finding out what students dislike to Rahimi about two months ago, and his committee has been working to program this survey to help better understand students.
The committee consists of faculty, staff, administration and students who market the importance of participating in the survey.
Student input will be an important aspect of initiating changes that could better student satisfaction.
Sociology major, Jennifer Donohue believes that if the administration is taking the initiative to send out a survey like this, then they may be taking the right steps toward improving SSU.
In her opinion, SSU will never be as desirable as an Ivy League university because of the lack of athletics and student involvement on campus, but it can still make changes to be considered a more desirable CSU.
"I would like to see a stronger athletics program come out of this," said Donohue. "But I just don't see that really happening."
According to Rahimi, this survey will ask questions concerning student lifestyle and campus routine.
Finding out what students think about their financial state, or the financial aid they receive, along with whether or not students work, and if so how many hours, are all important pieces of information for analyzing student satisfaction.
The survey will also gather information on what students think about the academics offered by SSU.
"The past is the past, this survey creates a base line to improve your situation," said Rahimi.
Rahimi emphasized that this survey is the start of an ongoing effort to improve the campus and its perception by students.
The survey is not only aimed at a social experience, as many of the questions address student satisfaction with their education as well as how challenged they feel in class. Academic preparedness, overall GPA and personal goals for education are some of the issues being addressed.
"Obviously the struggle to get classes has been dissatisfying in the past, but in terms of my classes and teachers I have been really impressed and can't complain," said Golden.
The survey addresses student opinion about advising and mentoring as well as developing friendships and participation in extracurricular activities.
"We are trying to get deep into the mind of students," said Rahimi.
Answers to the 50 questions presented are confidential and will be analyzed by a group of students under the supervision of professors.
Student participation in the survey is voluntary and responses are strictly anonymous and will not affect a student's relationship with the campus or administration.
Overall, the survey takes about seven minutes to complete and is flexible with leaving questions unanswered.
Whether or not the survey will succeed in encouraging the administration to better student satisfaction has not yet been determined, but the survey will be analyzed over the summer break.
Students have expressed different opinions about the cause of the survey as well as its outcome, and some speculation about the benefit to the administration after reviewing student responses has been addressed.
"I think the only way the administration would really put effort into making the student experience better is because it benefits them," said Golden.
Mike Nelson, business major, questioned the timing of the survey release and how representative it will be.
"If they [the administration] really wanted to hear our concerns they would have sent out this survey months ago, instead of when students are too busy with finals to really respond," said Nelson. "I hope students find the time to really take this chance and respond, but I don't think the turn out in participation is going to be high at this time of the year."
While some students consider the reason for the survey, others are displaying confidence in the university president's concern for the retention rate.
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