Office of Student Life Assessment Progress Report

Executive Summary

Overview of the Office of Student Life

The Office of Student Life comprises a multitude of areas, offices, and facilities that have been determined to relate to, and have a positive impact on student life:

1. Office of Accessibility

2. Office of Judicial Affairs and Greek Life

3. Office of International Student Services

4. Office of Recreation

5. Office of Residence Life

6. Student Activities and Leadership Offices

7. Career Services

8. Student Medical Center

9. Student Unions

10. University Counseling Center

College-level assessment activities

The offices and services that fall under the auspices of Student Life conduct a wide diversity of assessment activities at the college level.

• The Office of Accessibility measures effectiveness of guidance activities, patron satisfaction levels with staff and services, overall campus accessibility, and quality of services offered.
• The Office of Judicial Affairs and Greek Life employed outside consultants to assess staffing within the office, technology used within the office, and a review of the Student Code of Conduct. The primary focus for Judicial Affairs was to educate and enforce existing rules. Greek Life collected additional data on alcohol use, student satisfaction, and what students are learning because of participating in sororities or fraternities.
• The Office of International Student Services surveyed students to verify the effectiveness and satisfaction of activities, events, and services provided at the conclusion of those experiences. The assessment surveys include orientation, services, programming, course, instructor, and student interests’ concentrations.
• The Office of Recreation collects data that measures participant satisfaction and student usage of programs offered. This data aids in determining resource allocation, redirection of staff, and the creation of new/additional programs. Assessment foci include student learning, retention, lifestyle education programs, certification programs, and student employment.
• The Office of Residence Life participates in the ACUHO-I/EBI Resident Survey. This profession-wide university residence hall assessment tool provides comparative student feedback in a systematic way across a broad spectrum of university residence hall operations. The analyses of responses provide significant benchmarking comparisons on resident perceptions of their experience. The areas assessed include resident advisor satisfaction, student exit surveys, and formally planned activities offered in university housing.
• The Student Activities and Leadership Offices regularly assesses programs coordinated by the office. These assessment measurements and indicators include a numbers of factors: individuals served, list-serve surveys, program attendance, and program evaluations.
• Career Services currently assesses demographic information on student usage of and registration for services, qualitative and quantitative evaluations from participants in events, programs and services, needs assessments to determine program development, exit surveys, and student satisfaction surveys.
• The Student Medical Center conducts an external assessment measuring the quality of its services and performance against nationally recognized standards. Internal assessments include a patient satisfaction survey, an alcohol and drug survey, and a same-day appointment rate measure.
• The Student Unions are currently conducting assessments through surveys and student evaluations that focus on student satisfaction with resources and services provided through the Student Unions.
• The University Counseling Center conducted assessments on training and supervision for eight trainees, indicating positive experiences in all categories. Additionally, Total Quality Management studies were also conducted and reported, specifically, responding to emergencies and peer reviews of client files.

Changes

There were a number of positive changes associated with assessment initiatives and activities within the student life areas:

• The Office of Accessibility will implement academic skill building activities into its service offering and then evaluate the impact on GPA by disability category in future assessment evaluations.
• The Office of Judicial Affairs and Greek Life merged, and hired a Coordinator of Greek Life/Assistant Director of Student Judicial Affairs. Additionally, a Greek 101 class has been added to allow first and second year Greek students to participate in a leadership class. Lastly, a New Member Mini Retreat that focuses on giving all new members the leadership skills that they need to be active and constructive members in their chapter was added.
• The Office of International Student Services modified the curriculum and eliminated some curricular and extracurricular components.
• The Office of Recreation conducted training, presentations, and interviews with the focus being to facilitate additional training, information-sharing, and improvement of all services offered.
• The Office of Residence Life created presentations and information designed to better assist students with selecting housing options, roommates, and meal plans. Staff changes include the creation of training modules that are more comprehensive.
• The Student Activities and Leadership Offices is collaborating with the Student Union. The Student Union is conducting the EBI Survey, a national survey this semester. Several questions on this instrument directly correspond to student activities programming. This information will be utilized to address programming, student services, resource allocation and strategic planning for the department.
• Career Services will target the following areas for revision: Program components, career advising and information, and employment services.
• The Student Medical Center will request additional resources as a result of assessment data, including additional funds and staff. A thorough review of financial and marketing plans will now be conducted.
• The Student Unions will require all employment opportunities to include a piece on providing educational, personal, and development training. Enrolled students will now complete an assessment of the student union facilities and services.
• The University Counseling Center designed and implemented new walk-in counseling service, implemented changes from a satisfaction survey on environmental factor improvements, and reallocated funds to fund a FT post-doc psychology trainee position for one year.