Student Survey Results Criticize Advising

Columbians, the numbers say, are happy with their academics. But their experiences with advising and campus community aren’t quite so rosy.

Lured by a chance to win an iPod, nearly 3,000 students participated in the University’s Enrolled Student Survey last winter. The survey is conducted annually, and results from 2004 were recently released to coincide with the opening of the 2005 survey. All College and Engineering students are eligible to take the 2005 survey, which is available online until Monday, Feb. 14.

The survey’s questions, suggested by many of the University’s administrative divisions, deal with topics from alcohol use—60 percent of respondents managed to avoid a hangover in fall 2003—to online advising tools, which 37 percent have used. David X. Cheng, the director of the survey, said that survey results have led to changes to programs like undergraduate advising and residential life, such as assigning each first-year an adviser, and are likely to determine future programs.

Last winter, 54 percent of Columbia College and Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science students participated in the survey. Cheng, who is the assistant dean for research and planning at Student Affairs, said that those 54 percent were representative of the larger undergraduate population in terms of gender, class standing, and ethnicity. But the opinions of this smaller group of survey volunteers aren’t necessarily those of the whole student body.

 

Academics and Advising

 

Columbia students, the 2004 results suggest, enjoy their classes.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents to last year’s survey were satisfied with the quality of their instruction, and 91 percent said they’d been engaged intellectually at school. The Core got a little bit of criticism: 20 percent said it hadn’t helped their critical thinking skills, and only 65 percent said their science requirement classes had successfully introduced them to scientific methods.

But advising bears the brunt of students’ academic criticism. Fifty percent of respondents were dissatisfied with advising in their major department—and 32 percent of Columbia College juniors and seniors didn’t communicate at all with their department advisers in fall 2003.

The Advising Centers drew more student contact, with 84 percent of respondents communicating with a class dean in fall 2003. Students were largely happy with deans’ approachability and availability. But respondents were unsatisfied in some areas—only 38 percent found their class dean helpful in choosing a major—and only two-thirds found their class deans helpful overall.

First-years and sophomores were notably less happy about advising last year than they were two years ago. On every question, underclass respondents gave their class deans lower grades in 2004 than in 2003, with an 11 percent drop (to 71 percent) in overall satisfaction.

Sandy Johnson, the associate dean of advising and academic resources, said that the drop could be attributed to the last-minute departure of several advisers “poached” by other institutions. “A lot of staff turnover at an unexpected time will obviously impact students,” Johnson said, adding that she expected to see student satisfaction rise in the 2005 survey.

Since the survey’s inception five years ago, the Advising Centers’ approval ratings have fallen each year, despite extensive changes Johnson said were motivated by survey results. Between 2001 and 2004, overall satisfaction dropped 13 percent in the survey. But Johnson, pointing to increased student-adviser contact, wasn’t sure that the numbers properly reflected student feelings. “I actually think students are more satisfied than four years ago,” she said.

 

Social Life

 

The survey shows students happy with their on-campus lives. Eighty-six percent of respondents declared their dorm experience a positive one.

But students aren’t so positive when it comes to the idea of campus community. When asked if Residential Programs staff helped build community in their residence hall, only 49 percent of respondents agreed. And only 37 percent said that their fellow students took an active role in building community.

The 2004 survey didn’t ask whether students saw this lack of community building as a shortcoming. But the 2001 and 2002 surveys did—and students saw shortcomings.

In 2002, a mere 33 percent of respondents found Columbia’s overall sense of community satisfactory. Only 57 percent said they felt valued as a person, and only 53 percent agreed that Columbia students care about each other. These numbers showed a “huge problem” on campus, Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo said that year.

But the next year, those three questions were removed from the survey.

Cheng, the survey’s director, said that he came to think that perhaps he “was asking the wrong question” by looking for campus-wide community. Now, instead of asking about a single Columbia community, the survey asks whether students feel accepted as a member of several Columbia communities, which 79 percent of respondents said they did.

Last year’s survey also emphasized issues of multiculturalism. Seventy-two percent of respondents agreed that Columbia had improved their ability to interact with people of different backgrounds, and 89 percent said they’d been given opportunities for such interactions. And, despite current concerns about academic freedom, last year 85 percent of students agreed that Columbia allowed free expression of ideas and beliefs.

This year’s survey is available until Monday, Feb. 14 at www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/survey2005/. Though most questions are similar from year to year, Cheng said that “every detail” of the survey is reevaluated yearly, in a process that involves several administrative departments and “quite a lot of politics.” This year’s changes include a career education section and a special questionnaire for Living Learning Center residents.

More extensive results from the 2004 survey, dealing with topics from financial aid to mental health, are available at www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/survey2004/.