Syracuse University Undergraduates for a Better Education Survey Report Fall 2013

7/27/2019 Syracuse University Undergraduates for a Better Education Survey Report Fall 2013

1/38

Undergraduates for a Better Education

Fall 2013 Report

Our Voice. Our Education.

Report By: Emily Ballard and Sawyer Cresap


2/38

Survey By: Emily Ballard, Sawyer Cresap, Mahlet Makonnen, Jessica Rapp, Alexandria

Vignola

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements.3

Executive Summary....4

Methods...5

Findings...8

Advising..9

Course Availability13

Instruction..17

Improving Undergraduate Education.22

Appendix.24

Survey Instrument...25

Cross-College Comparisons27

UBE Report, Syracuse University, Fall 2013. 2


3/38

Acknowledgements

Undergraduates for a Better Education would like to thank Bron Adams for assistance in revising

the survey and providing feedback; the staff of the Institutional Review Board; the Office ofInstitutional Research and Assessment for support with developing the final survey; Vice

Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina and Associate Provost Andria Costello Staniec for their

advice on survey content and assistance distributing the survey to the student body; andProfessor William D. Coplin for his continuous guidance and feedback throughout the entire

survey process and reporting process.

The authors of this report were Emily Ballard and Sawyer Cresap, with assistance from

Benjamin Choe and Boris Gresley. The survey was conducted by Emily Ballard, Sawyer Cresap,

Mahlet Makonnen, Jessica Rapp and Carolina Vignola. Emily Ballard served as the UBEPresident and Sawyer Cresap served as UBE Vice President in 2013.

We hope this report has provided insight into student opinions not usually captured in such a

large-scale, quantitative manner. Students feel the university and its components have succeededin many areas but should reevaluate others. Several schools and colleges excelled in certain areas

while others could use improvement according to student responses. Students cited new concerns

while others still echo from years ago. We as the voice of the student body, the consumers, askthat you take these factors which the quality of undergraduate education depends on into

consideration. In particular we hope you will begin to further address the areas of advising,

instruction, and cost of tuition. As the Athenian Oath states, we, the undergraduates of SyracuseUniversity, will do everything in our power to transmit this City not only, not less, but greater

and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us just as we hope you will too.



4/38

Our Voice. Our Education.Undergraduates for a Better Education

By: Emily Ballard and Sawyer Cresap

September 2013

Executive Summary

Undergraduates for a Better Education (UBE) has been advocating for improvement in

undergraduate education at Syracuse University since 1986. After a falling out from 2005-2011,

a small group of students distributed a preliminary survey to investigate if there were areas forimprovement at Syracuse University in the fall of 2012. The answers from this survey sparked

the revival of UBE and catalyzed the new generation of UBE members. In the spring of 2013

UBE conducted the following survey, campus-wide. The results of the following survey

represent the answers from a sample of 778 undergraduate students attending Syracuse

University full-time. The target population was 13,943 full-time undergraduate students.Thisstudy is intended to express the voice of the undergraduate student body in order to help faculty

and administrators improve the quality of undergraduate education at Syracuse University.

Findings:

1. 57% of respondents said they were satisfied with the availability of their advisor.2. 61% of respondents said they were satisfied with their advisors

knowledge of core requirements.3. 53% of respondents said they were satisfied with their personal

interactions with their advisor.

4. 51% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with the overall availabilityof courses.

5. 56% of respondents said they were satisfied with the availability of classes that meetschool/college requirements.

6. 64% of respondents said they were satisfied with the availability of classes that meet

their major requirements.7. 55% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with their professors

ability to get students excited about the course subject.

8. 54% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with their professors

ability to get students to engage in classroom instruction.9. 62% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with their teaching

assistants ability to support in-class instruction.10. 60% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with the extent to whichgrades reflect learning.



5/38

METHODS

How Data Was Collected

Instrument Design

Undergraduates for a Better Education (UBE) designed the survey instrument with the assistance

of Bron Adams and the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment in Spring 2013.

Target Population and Sample

The target population consists of the 13,943 undergraduates attending Syracuse University (SU).

UBE collected surveys from a sample of 778 undergraduate students at SU.

Method of Contact

The UBE Survey was conducted online over a two-week period, March 18th through March30th. Students received the survey through the Undergraduate student listserv with the assistanceof Associate Provost Andria Costello Staniec. Students also had access to the survey through

social media, and emails to student organizations and QR codes. Students were only able to

complete the survey once.

Representativeness

The survey sample may not accurately reflect the target population due to underrepresentation

from some colleges. Freshmen and sophomores are slightly overrepresented in the survey so you

may interpret the findings with that knowledge in mind. However, not all students chose to

answer the demographics questions on the survey, accounting for some of the under andoverrepresentation. Though the individual colleges differ in response rates, the students views as

a whole are valuable when looking at the overall undergraduate experience at Syracuse

University.

Open Ended Responses

The sample comments selected were chosen to demonstrate the responses given most frequently.

The sample comments were chosen based on their level of clarity, comprehension, and quality of

information.



6/38

Quality of DataComparing Target Populations

Figure 1 Class Standing of Respondentsn=581Class Standing Target

Population

Sample Difference

Freshman 17.8% 28% 10.2

Sophomore 22.9% 31% 8.1

Junior 23.3% 22% 8.7

Senior 36.0% 19% 17

Target Percentages Source: Spring 2013 SU Enrollment Report

Figure 2 Gender of Respondents

n=575Gender Target

Population

Sample Difference

Female 56% 67.5% 11.5

Male 44% 32.5% 11.5

Transgender Unknown 0.2% -

Other Unknown 0.3% -

Figure 3 Ethnic Background of Respondents

n=598Ethnic Background Target

Population

Sample Difference

African American or

Black

7.6% 10.3% 2.7

Native

American/American

Indian/Alaskan

Indian

0.6% 1.0% 0.4

Asian American or

Asian/Pacific

Islander

6.9% 11.8% 4.9

Latino/a or Hispanic

American

8% 8.5% 0.5

White/European 74.9% 67.8% 6.7Multiracial 2.0% 3.7% 1.7

Other Unknown 2.4% -



7/38

Figure 4 Home College of Respondentsn=678

Home College(s) Target

Population

Sample Difference

School of

Architecture

3.8% 1.5% 2.3

College of Arts and

Sciences/Maxwell

33.7% 34.3% 0.6

School ofEducation

3.4% 3.7% 0.3

College ofEngineering and

Computer Science

10.5% 11.0% 0.5

Falk College of

Sport and Human

Dynamics

8.5% 8.2% 0.3

School of

Information

Studies

4.2% 1.8% 2.4

Newhouse School

of Public

Communications

9.8% 8.7% 1.1

College of Visual

and Performing

Arts

13.9% 7.8% 6.1

Whitman School of

Management

12.5% 7.5% 6.5

Figure 5 Major Declarationn=574

Major Declared? Target

Population

Sample Difference

Yes 92.6% 82.1% 10.5

No 7.4% 18.4% 11.0

Figure 6 On/Off Campusn=575

Residence Duringthe School Year TargetPopulation Sample Difference

On Campus 44.5% 67.2% 22.7

Off Campus 55.5% 32.9% 22.6



8/38

Findings

Advising..9

Course Availability13

Instruction.17

Improving Undergraduate Education22



9/38

FINDINGS

1. 57% of respondents said they were satisfied with the availability of their advisor.

Source: Data collected by Undergraduates for a Better Education Members, Syracuse

University, Spring 2013.

Comment: Respondents were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction on a scale of 1

to 5 with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied.



10/38

2. 61% of respondents said they were satisfied with their advisorsknowledge of core requirements.



Comment: Respondents were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction on a scale of 1to 5 with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied.


11/38

3. 53% of respondents said they were satisfied with their personalinteractions with their advisor.







12/38

Open-ended Responses- Advising

Total Number of Comments Received: 358

Positive: 32.2%Negative: 45.3%

Neutral: 9.5%

Sample Comments:

Positive:

Overall I have been very pleased with the academic advising here. They are willing to help

me and give me advice as needed.

He is very nice and willing to help me. I am really glad of that.

Very good. I love my advisor and I can see that he definitely wants me to succeed here

and once I step into the real world.

My adviser is easy to contact and often responds to my emails immediately or within a

few hours.

Negative:

My advisor is not a very open and helpful person, which makes meetings very awkward.

He gives off the message that he does not want me in his office or department. He does

not challenge me to do more than required and if anything, pressures me to only do the

bare minimum requirements. When asked about a potential double major, he was not able

to give any more information nor did he give me an additional person to contact. I am verydissatisfied with my current advisor and wish for someone better.

I feel like I was talking to a computer, no feelings, no advice, no sight on my future.

Completely un-impressed and dissatisfied. I even tried switching my adviser but to noavail.

I find better advising with advisors and professors other than my personally assigned

advisee.

Pointless to my education experience. My advisor has actually been a hindrance to my

progress at the university.

Advising at Syracuse is completely the students responsibility.

My Advisor knows nothing about the core requirements or credits.

I'm an art major, and whenever I need my advisor she has not been there once. I email her

to make important appointments, and she never responds (until I mark it "urgent"). More

than once my account has been on hold when it came time to enroll in my classes, because



13/38

my advisor had never told me she needed to sign it, so I have had to run around searching

for her, in a panic.

The "freshman advisors" are rather useless, but my experience with my advisor in my

department has been great.

A rating of 3.4 was the mean for overall availability of courses while VPA scored highest

for availability of courses with a 3.7 rating and Falk and Education lowest with a 3.1

rating.

4. 51% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with the overall

availability of courses.

Source: Data collected by Undergraduates for a Better Education Members, SyracuseUniversity, Spring 2013.




14/38

5. 56% of respondents said they were satisfied with the availability of classes that

meet school/college requirements.







15/38

6. 64% of respondents said they were satisfied with the availability of classes that

meet their major requirements.







16/38

Open-ended Responses Course Availability



Neutral: 14.3%

Sample Comments:

Positive:

I am an Honors student, so I have always received priority.

I like the seniority factor. I also like that many teachers are willing to take you into a

class that is already full when you email them.

Being an athlete here at Syracuse has allowed me to schedule classes with very little

problems.

I was happy that my first semester all of my classes were in my major

I have been able so far to take every course I needed to or wanted to take

Negative:

Being that I am a freshman, a lot of the classes I want are closed already and I have to

rearrange everything.

There are many college requirements that many incoming students are not aware of for

example the check sheet needed for graduation. As well, for many behavioral, humanities

and other sections needed to be completed for graduation the classes offered for these

core requirements are often uninteresting and are often classes students seem to do poorlyon and do not care about. They have no interest in the course are are taking the course

solely because it is a requirement by offering courses that are more interesting in these

subjects students would be happier to take them.

The bioengineering curriculum requires planned courses to be taken precisely when

planned or you risk falling behind schedule and not graduating on time.

It was frustrating trying to fill my non-major course requirements because so many

classes fill up quickly.

Took me two semesters to get into many classes that I need to graduate. I think that isridiculous if it is required, and especially if it is for majors only.

Simply saying that courses are offered "irregularly" in the course guide has no real value

for long-term planning whatsoever. A listing of which courses are planned to be offeredin which upcoming semesters would be very helpful to those of us with "looser" majors

that need to figure out what we're going to take when.



17/38

A lot of the listings of courses in the course catalog are never actually offered.

I feel that there are enough classes, but not enough sections for some classes (they get

filled up quickly).


ability to get students excited about the course subject.







18/38


ability to get students to engage in classroom instruction.

Source: Data collected by Undergraduates for a Better Education Members, SyracuseUniversity, Spring 2013.




19/38

9. 62% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with their teaching

assistants ability to support in-class instruction.







20/38

10. 60% of respondents said they were dissatisfied or neutral with the extent to which grades

reflect learning.







21/38

Open-ended Responses Instruction



Neutral: 3.0%

Sample CommentsPositive:

It really differs from course to course, TA to TA, and department to department. Overall,

I am satisfied.

I feel that my grades were reflective to the work I put in. As long as you attended the

classes, completed assignments/projects on time and participated in class discussions,

then the grades should be reflective of that effort. I do feel challenged and given theopportunity to express myself.

Instructors at levels higher than introductory courses are typically very helpful and

knowledgeable

This semester I have had mostly big lecture halls and therefore haven't had many

experiences with smaller classroom situations. But overall, all of my classes have beenheld in an acceptable manner.

Most of my instructors have been amazing! They're so passionate about the material they

teach!

Negative:

I've had a TA who couldn't even speak English well enough to teach the astronomy lab I

was taking. I am all for having foreign TAs but if they can't speak English they shouldn't

be teaching!!! I definitely think it negatively affected my grade. It was so bad we had tohave our friend ask questions in Spanish and then translate.

Professors are dull and are seldomly enthusiastic about course material.

Grades do not always reflect learning. It depends heavily in which class is being

considered

Professors need to work on engaging their classrooms. Yes I know, circuits and physics

aren't exactly a fun classes to teach, but guess what you're stuck with it and we have tolearn it so you might as well make the best of it so the test averages aren't 50's.

Varies depending on course, some professors are awesome, some not so awesome. Also,

what is the deal with TA's who barely speak English? My first semester of BIO 121

freshman year my lab TA spoke good English. My second semester of BIO 122 my lab

TA spoke horrible English. Lab practical grade semester 1= 96, semester 2= 55. I thinkthat proves my point!



22/38

Open-ended Reponses What would you recommend the

University do to improve undergraduate education?


Instruction: 35.9%

Courses: 28.8%Advising: 12.6%

Miscellaneous: 10.1%

Funding: 5.0%

Sample CommentsInstruction:

Hire professors who seem enthusiastic about the subject rather than drown students with

their knowledge.

Teach TA's how to teach. Some are fabulous, some are downright horrible

Hire more TENURE-TRACK faculty; reduce student:faculty ratio (especially in

Environmental Engineering dept at LC Smith)

Provide more support for students with disabilities and have professors be held to a

higher standard on support for students. Those professors and instructors whom dont

follow through should be removed, screw tenure.

I'm studying engineering and have had terrible experiences so far. Many of my

professors, in required core courses, speak poor English nor seem to care how students

do. The class material is hard to begin with but having to deal with the language barrier

and as I mentioned before, the adversity at the beginning of the semester, just makes iteven harder. The grades I've received, good and bad, reflect not only me, but to some

extent, the professor as well. So, I would recommend looking through the staff.

Actually take into consideration our teacher evaluations. I know for a fact that most, if

not all, students complain about 1 teacher in particular yet she is still teaching the class. IfSU really cared about us learning, they would actually consider assigning her to teach a

different class rather than make students struggle year after year.

Courses:

Please, put forth more resources in improving classrooms, on-campus laboratories, and

overall condition of buildings. While some buildings on campus are absolutely beautiful,

there are many that do not get the attention that they receive. As an academic institution,

we should have more study areas, updated libraries, and do as much as we can tomaximize academic opportunities. Many students were very upset with the What Is It?

Campaign and would have liked for all of those resources to go towards financial aid,

scholarships, and other areas that would make Syracuse University a top academicinstitutions.

Availability of more classes. I am always waitlisted even for MAJOR courses I need to

take and office just tells me I can't take it



23/38

I think the University should decrease the number of core requirements and increase the

number of/availability of advisors

To allow those of us who go to night classes to have the same opportunity to chose

classes pertaining to our career path

Have the classes be more skill based. Each student should gain basic skills for after

graduation, such as writing html code, knowing how to use excel properly, writing andcoding surveys, speaking skills, financial skills, and maybe even Photoshop basics

Advising:

Create some type of student oversight board that can give student to student advising, act

as a secure and permanent bridge between student, faculty and the administration. The

board or entity should compile feedback for every undergraduate class and seminar that

could be used to provide constructive critiques to all parties involved. Hopefully, this

would open up strong and meaningful communication between students, faculty andadministrators.

Find a way to increase standards of advising across all colleges - experiences vary greatly

from each college to the next.

Better advising. Many students end up spending five years here which is completely

unnecessary. Perhaps if advisors knew more about subjects they could help students

fulfill all their requirementsMiscellaneous:

Make admissions more selective

Too many things to list here, but the one thing I will suggest is making diverse students

feel more welcome. I don't mean just our freshman year. As a student of color, I wasupset to see that I had barely any professors of color. The campus feels very segregated

and though there are great support programs in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, I

always felt like the university administrators could have done more to make students of

color fee at home.Funding:

Invest more money in departments instead of student centers and clubs. There are

departments in CAS that are essential to the development of the university in the

globalized world (Language Departments specifically) that are on the brink of closuredue to underfunding. SU advertises itself as a research institution but this is simply

untrue. Some majors and schools are given unfair preference and the focus of the

university environment seems to be sports.

Lower tuition. Everything here costs an exorbitant amount of money.

Be more transparent with where resources and funds go for undergraduate education. I

would like breakdowns of where my tuition money goes.

Improve classrooms besides the ones in Newhouse and Whitman - makes other majorsfeel there learning space is less important because the classrooms have old and brokendesks (Huntington hall, Sims, HBC are some examples)

Use more of its billion dollar endowment to provide scholarships and fund student

organizations, and less of it to fund sports programs and unnecessary remodeling.



24/38

APPENDICES

Table of Contents

Appendix I ` Survey Instrument

Appendix II Cross-College Comparisons



25/38

Appendix I-1Survey Instrument

Undergraduates for a Better Education (UBE) invites you to provide your feedback on undergraduate education at

Syracuse University. The data collected will be used create recommendations to be presented the University

administration. Your responses will be confidential and only grouped data will be reported.

1. Electronic Consent form

Advising

Please indicate your level of satisfaction at Syracuse University with:

Very Very

N/A Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Satisfied

2. Availability of your advisor ...N/A 1 2 3 4 5

3. Your advisors knowledge ofcore requirementsN/A 1 2 3 4 5

4. Your personal interactions with your

advisor.N/A 1 2 3 4 5

5. Please comment on your advising experiences at the University.

Course Availability


6. Overall availability of courses .N/A 1 2 3 4 5

7. Availability of classes thatmeetschool/college core requirementsN/A 1 2 3 4 5

8. Availability of classes that meet

majorrequirements....N/A 1 2 3 4 5

9. Please comment on your experiences with course availability.

Instruction


10. Professors ability to get studentsexcited about course subject.. ..N/A 1 2 3 4 5

11. Professors ability to get students

to engage in classroom instruction.... N/A 1 2 3 4 5

12. Teaching assistants ability to .. N/A 1 2 3 4 5

support in-class instruction

13. Extent to which grades reflect learningN/A 1 2 3 4 5

14. Please comment on your experiences with instruction.



26/38



27/38

15. What would you recommend the University do to improve undergraduate education?

16. Please provide any additional comments about your undergraduate educational experience at

Syracuse University that you would like UBE to know about.

Please respond to the following demographic items by checking the response that best describes you. All

responses are optional and will be kept confidential. Only group data will be reported, and the resultswill be summarized in a way that ensures anonymity.

17. Gender:

[ ] Female

[ ] Male

[ ] Transgender[ ] Other, please specify: _______________

18. Please check the category that most closely describes your ethnic background.

[ ] African American or Black

[ ] Native American/American Indian/ Alaskan Indian

[ ] Asian American or Asian/Pacific Islander

[ ] Latino/a or Hispanic American

[ ] White/European American[ ] Multiracial

[ ] Other

19. Year:

[ ] First year

[ ] Sophomore

[ ] Junior

[ ] Senior

20. Home college(s): (If dually enrolled, check both schools)[ ] School of Architecture

[ ] College of Arts and Sciences

[ ] School of Education[ ] Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science

[ ] Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics

[ ] School of Information Studies

[ ] Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

[ ] Newhouse School of Public Communications[ ] College of Visual and Performing Arts

[ ] Whitman School of Management

21. Have you declared a major?

[ ] Yes

[ ] No

22. Residence during the school year:[ ] On campus

[ ] Off campus

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey! Your responses will help the UBE form

recommendations on how the University may improve the undergraduate education experience.


28/38

Appendix II-1Cross College Comparison

Every question on the survey was broken down into average satisfaction level by college,

and then compared. Responses from the School of Information Studies and School ofEducation were excluded from these breakdowns due to low response rates.


29/38

1.

Source: Data collected by Undergraduates for Better Education members, SyracuseUniversity, Spring 2013.

Comment: Respondents were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction on a scale of 1 to

5 with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied.


30/38

2.

Source: Data collected by Undergraduates for Better Education members, Syracuse





31/38

3.






32/38

4.






33/38

5.





34/38

6.






35/38

7.





36/38

8.






37/38

9.






38/38

10.




Documents

Syracuse University Undergraduates for a Better Education Survey Report Fall 2013