On a scale of one to seven, seven being the highest approval and one being disapproval, how would University of Memphis campus services rank?
According to surveys conducted by the U of M during the fall 2013 semester, students seem to be mostly satisfied by faculty and services.
Nearly 33,000 questionnaires were sent out and 12.8 percent of those were filled out, according to an email sent from Interim President Brad Martin's office. It also offered anyone a complete copy of the results upon request.
The form made statements about campus services and asked students to rank how true each statement was. The seven areas covered by the form were academic advising, financial aid, housing, recruitment office, registrar office and transfer student services.
Though the official results were not yet available, a working draft was sent to those who requested a copy.
The largest number of responses came in for academic advising at 1,343, while the lowest replies came from transfer student services at 289.
Director of Student Affairs Learning and Assessment Daniel A. Bureau was a member of the team that created the survey.
"When you consider survey research, you hope to get as many respondents as possible. The reality is that you might only get ten to fifteen percent," Bureau said. "What you want is that fraction to represent the diversity on campus, which I believe it does."
Jared Rodgers, economic and financing sophomore, said he was one of the 1,343 students who responded. He was not surprised by the results.
Rodgers lives in the residence halls as required by his leadership scholarship. He said he enjoys living on campus as it allows him to get more involved with college life.
"I marked 'strongly agree' on many of the questions," Rodgers said.
Abigail Chaney, marketing freshmen, was one of the 337 students who filled out the section concerning campus housing. She said on the survey she gave high marks for statements like "I am happy I chose to live in the residence hall" and "Facilities are adequate." There was also a section that allowed for students to answer open-ended questions.
"The only complaint I have is that the bathroom drains are always clogged," she said.
Not all students who filled out forms were able to answer every question posed in the survey. Chaney was allowed to answer questions about housing but was excluded from other sections of the questionnaire.
"I answered every one of these question," Rodgers said as he flipped through the working draft of the survey. "Except I know they didn't ask me anything concerning the Bursar's office."
According to Bureu, the Bursar, financial aid and registrar sections were all chosen from a random sample of undergraduate and graduate students.
"The other four areas were limited to students who had dealings with those particular departments in the last nine months," Bureau said.
Not everyone agreed with the results of the survey.
Taylor Hopkins, history and anthropology sophomore, filled out the survey last fall and laughed when she saw the percentages reported on certain questions. She said that 80 percent of those living on campus did not understand the policies of living in the residence halls.
"I was so confused by so many of the rules," Hopkins said. "Students would have shot glasses and not realize that alcohol paraphernalia was prohibited."
Hopkins said she complained about maintenance problems not only on the survey but to the residential advisors. These problems eventually led her to move out of the Living Learning Complex.
Although overall ratings were high, Bureau said there is still room for progress and the comments students wrote in the survey will be used to increase overall quality.
"We are not perfect. There were some testimonials that were not favorable," Bureau said. "Not everyone has had the best experience, so our goal will be to improve in those areas."
