DATAWave 4.5

Volume 4, No.5 Published by Assessment Resource Office, ENMU Date: 11-6-96

Student Satisfaction Inventory Follow-up Survey

In the Spring of 1995, the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) was administered to more than 1000 students at Eastern New Mexico University. The SSI pointed to several areas of concerns, most obviously in the enrollment management areas of course registration and financial aid. However, interpretation and use of the results were made more difficult because of the difficulty in interpreting results in context. That is, at what level do performance gaps become critical (a performance gap is the difference between the mean scores of student reported importance for an item and the mean score for satisfaction), and what specifically should be addressed.

For the former, two methods were used. First, all SSI questions were ranked by performance gap, and second, all items were ranked by importance. Both were subjected to the “parking lot test.” (Parking is relatively easy at Eastern compared to other institutions, and when students’ complaints are less vigorous than parking complaints, they are therefore considered less critical). For the first test, eleven items had performance gaps larger than parking (the performance gap for parking is 1.78). These questions were:

I seldom get the-run-around when seeking information on this campus.
For each class offered, there is an appropriate number of sections (offerings) available.
Financial aid awards are announced to students in time to be helpful in college planning.
Adequate financial aid is available for most students.
Financial aid counselors are helpful.
I am able to register for classes I need with few conflicts.
Parking lots are well-lighted and secure.
Library resources and services are adequate.
Channels for expressing student complaints are readily available.
Admissions staff is knowledgeable.
Faculty are fair and unbiased in their treatment of individual students.
There are a variety of classes offered in each subject area.

Next, the top 25 items ranked by importance were examined (a level suggested by the SSI publisher), and those items whose performance gap exceeded parking (n=7) were:

I am able to register for classes I need with few conflicts.
Faculty are fair and unbiased in their treatment of individual students.
Library resources and services are adequate.
Admissions staff is knowledgeable.

There are a variety of classes offered in each subject area.

I seldom get the-run-around when seeking information on this campus.
For each class offered, there is an appropriate number of sections (offerings) available.
Parking lots are well-lighted and secure.

These items were used to design a survey that could be used by administrators to “pin point” what type of interventions might lead to improved student satisfaction. The survey was developed by the Assessment Resource Office with input, editing, and suggestions from the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Deans Council, and the senior staff of Student Affairs.

Results

Demographics

The SSI follow-up (SSI-FUP) was administered to a number of classes during the Spring 1996 semester. In identifying classes for administration, care was taken to ensure that a representative sample by sex, class level, and college was obtained. Three hundred and two (302) surveys were returned to the Assessment Resource Office for scoring and analysis. Of these, 129 (45%) were men and 169 (55%) women. (Thirteen students did not indicate their gender.) The average age of students in the sample was 24. Four students did not indicate in which college they were enrolled, 43 indicated the College of Business (16%), 122 the College of Education and Technology (44%), 15 the College of Fine Arts (5%), and 97 the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (35%). Students reported that they had attended Eastern an average of 1.85 years and carried 11 units. One hundred and seventy-three students matriculated at Eastern as first-time freshmen (60%), 112 as transfers (40%), and 17 did not respond.

Program Staff and Hours

Specific information was requested on a number of units (Admissions Office, Advising, Bookstore, Campus Union, Career Services, Computer Services, Counseling, Disabled Student Services, Financial Aid, Food Services, Health Services, Housing, Intramurals/Recreation, Library, Police, Registrar’s Office, Student Activities, Testing, and Tutoring). Students were asked to indicate the extent to which they strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree to the following questions:

The staff of this office/program is generally responsive.
The staff of this office/program is generally helpful.
The staff of this office/program needs to be increased.
The office/program needs to increase its hours of service.
The office/program needs more weekend hours.
The office/program needs more evening hours.

Students were also asked to provide written comments.

Table I summarizes the proportion of students who agreed or strongly agreed with the aforementioned statements for each of the offices/programs included in the survey. Generally (with the exception of Intramurals and Financial Aid), students find staff helpful and responsive and want more hours of service. A review of the written comments indicates that students want access to services during the lunch hour and early evening.

Generally student comments requested more hours, staff, and resources. There was a sprinkling of negative remarks, but of the 751 written comments, only approximately 70 referred to negative or unhelpful staff.

TABLE I GOES HERE

Program Staff and Hours

	used office	responsive	helpful	more staff	more hours	more weekend	more evening
Admissions Office	82%	88%	90%	60%	64%	53%	63%
Advising	72%	86%	88%	55%	63%	51%	59%
Bookstore	98%	93%	92%	52%	68%	68%	70%
Campus Union	65%	93%	93%	52%	55%	59%	57%
Career Services	25%	85%	90%	60%	63%	57%	42%
Computer Services	82%	85%	81%	63%	70%	73%	69%
Counseling	16%	87%	88%	52%	62%	58%	63%
Disabled Student Serv	4%	80%	81%	63%	68%	63%	70%
Financial Aid	61%	64%	65%	71%	78%	67%	71%
Food Services	50%	85%	85%	38%	76%	73%	70%
Health Services	53%	90%	90%	69%	75%	72%	71%
Housing	41%	87%	87%	53%	60%	63%	59%
Intramurals/Recreation	32%	21%	24%	65%	70%	32%	31%
Library	96%	94%	92%	61%	63%	64%	62%
Police	28%	81%	17%	51%	55%	53%	42%
Registrar's Office	88%	95%	93%	55%	69%	56%	64%
Student Activities	34%	91%	92%	57%	63%	61%	63%
Testing	18%	88%	91%	51%	58%	58%	60%
Tutoring	23%	91%	91%	67%	70%	69%	40%

Student Activities

Throughout the SSI and in other surveys conducted, students indicated a general dissatisfaction with entertainment and activities in the Portales area. The following questions were designed to determine how to get students more involved with student activities.

One hundred and thirty-three students indicated they attend student activities at Eastern. One hundred and fifty-four students indicated they attend an average of four activities a month. One hundred and seventy-eight said they were too busy to attend more. Eighty-four said they were offered at inconvenient times. Eight would like more in the morning, 41 in the evening, and 43 on the weekend. They would like to see the following types of programs:

	Activity	# of respondents
1.	comedians	142
2.	movies	129
3.	athletic events	109
4.	plays	107
5.	rock-n-roll music	104
6.	live country music	84
7.	musicals	76
8.	live jazz music	72
9.	intramurals	62
10.	dance recitals	54
11.	live classical music	50
12.	current even speakers	47
13.	religious speakers	40
14.	political speakers	35
15.	more student organizations/clubs	33
16.	more Greek activities	26

One hundred and six students indicated they don’t usually learn about events. One hundred and twenty-three students indicated they learned about events through The Chase, 60 through the Monday Memo, 133 by posters, and 122 by classroom announcements. Forty-eight students indicated that they thought that there were enough activities.

When asked what other music they wanted, eight students responded alternative, 6 R&B, 4 rap, 3 jazz, 2 Christian, 2 anything, and a single student asked for each of the following: techno, folk, new age, Tex Mex, rock, blues, steel drum, opera, Spanish, classical, hard rock, club, and heavy metal.

When asked what other activities they would like, students responded art events, dances, “events people with kids” (sic), more fun activities, games, and Saturday steel drum concerts.

When asked what other types of publicity would be helpful, 15 students suggested radio, 5 newspaper/Portales News Tribune, 2 more posters, and a single student advocated monthly assemblies, television, sidewalk chalk, friends, signs, billboards, and a WWW homepage.

Registration and Financial Aid

Students were asked to reply to several questions related to registering for classes and financial aid. The majority of students believe that registering for classes at Eastern is relatively easy (74%), that it has improved since they began at Eastern (62%), and that spring 1996 registration was an improvement from fall 1995 registration (72%). However, students are not supportive of the $50 deposit (only 46% believe that it is appropriate), and agree that there needs to be more sections of classes available for general education and their majors, more class offerings for both areas, and more classes available at all times. Students were fairly consistent in requesting additional classes in the morning, afternoon, or evening. Students were only moderately supportive of changes in financial aid, with half the students agreeing that there had been improvements. The results follow in Table II.

TABLE II

	Strongly agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Registering for classes at Eastern is relatively easy.	63-22%	149-52%	55-19%	21-7%
Registering for classes at Eastern has improved since I began here.	75-25%	111-37%	72-24%	11-4%
The pre-registration process is beneficial to students.	142-50%	109-38%	22-8%	11-4%
The registration process for classes for the spring 1996 semester improved from the fall 1995 semester.	53-21%	129-51%	65-25%	8-3%
The fifty dollar pre-registration fee is an appropriate deposit to hold classes.	49-17%	83-29%	65-23%	85-30%
The awarding and distribution of financial aid improved for the spring 1996 semester from the all 1995 semester.	22-9%	96-41%	78-33%	39-17%
In general, the amount, frequency, and variety of classes meet my needs.	23-8%	139-49%	75-27%	44-16%
Registering for classes is made more difficult because there are not enough DIFFERENT TYPES of classes available in my MAJOR.	76-27%	112-40%	79-28%	11-4%
Registering for classes is made more difficult because there are not enough SECTIONS of classes available in my MAJOR.	71-26%	114-41%	84-30%	9-3%
Registering for classes is made more difficult becuase there are not enough DIFFERENT TYPES of classes avilable for GENERAL EDUCATION.	46-71%	104-39%	108-41%	8-3%
Registering for classes is made more difficult because there are not enough DIFFERENT TYPES of classes available for my MAJOR.	74-27%	106-40%	80-30%	8-3%
There should be more classes offered during the MORNING.	57-21%	111-41%	82-31%	18-7%
There should be more classes offered during the AFTERNOON.	49-18%	142-54%	61-23%	12-5%
There should be more classes offered during the EVENINGS.	51-19%	121-45%	80-30%	17-6%
There should be more classes offered during the WEEKENDS.	40-21%	75-35%	93-29%	55-15%
I would like to take more classes through instructional televsion.	31-12%	64-24%	106-40%	65-24%

Recommendations

Based on the results of the SSI and the SSI Follow-up survey, the following recommendations are made:

ensure that all student programs and offices are open during the lunch hour
attempt to establish evening hours for admissions, registrar, financial aid at least two nights each week
attempt to increase the hours available in evenings for computer services and library
University employees should be sure students are obtaining the information that the student is requesting, or that the student understands the referral that is being made
all students should be greeted pleasantly · Financial Aid should continue to require the full support of the administration in addressing personnel and procedural changes to ensure increased student satisfaction
Academic Affairs should consider if there are ways to increase the number of course offerings with the current number of faculty members
individuals who do not want to help students should be encouraged to continue their careers elsewhere

In short, we need to continue to consider students first in every administrative decision and interaction.

Use of Results

Every administrator and manager is encouraged to look at the survey questions and consider:

what proportion of responses would be acceptable (i.e., 80% or 90% agreeing that the staff is friendly)?
what proportion of responses do they expect?
is the proportion of results what was expected? Why or why not?
if so, what is currently being done to address students’ needs and concerns?
if not, what will be done to address students’ needs and concerns?
what additional types of questions would be useful for additional surveys?

Conclusion

The results of the SSI were at first alarming. However, it is not possible to review those results (especially performance gaps) in a context that makes clear what types of interventions would be appropriate. Rather, the data generally seems to indicate that students are not happy. When asked what changes could be made in personnel or services, students were generally pleased, except they wanted more of what we have to offer. Most offices scored above 80% on measures of responsiveness and helpfulness, with several scoring above 90%. Two areas did not and warrant continued attention. No clear cut recommendations or problems emerge from the data except for the need to serve students at times other than 8 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1 a.m. -5 p.m. and to ensure that students’ needs are being met when they make requests of us.

It may well be that we serve a demanding constituency. However, this does not change the fact that students' opinions and observations remain very real to them. It may be necessary to help students realize where to find the services they need and to work with them to ensure they obtain it. Also, managers must work with staff to ensure that all students are served in a respectful and friendly manner.