A District Student Council e-book survey presented to the Academic Accountability and Student Success Committee Tuesday represented only 0.5 percent of the entire student population of this district.
A range of 304-311 (or more) students completed some part of the survey.
The deadline to respond to the survey, sent via ACES April 1, was April 4, but many students hadn’t received it by then and some still haven’t.
The only explanation offered was that mass emails are sent in batches that could clog the system.
The council decided to send the survey a month ago, so why did they wait until the week before it was due to send it out en masse?
The last survey sent by this college’s Student Government yielded a pitiful 3.6 percent turn out of the 39,000 students it was sent to over the course of a week.
SGA’s officers even set up a voting station in Loftin Student Center, encouraging participation. Given the extra effort and lack of response, this college’s representatives to the council could have shared a cautionary tale.
Wouldn’t it have been more effective to send it immediately, giving the 60,000 students of the district a chance to educate themselves on the issue, consider the open-ended questions and respond throughout the month?
On top of that, even though the questions were meant for student feedback only, some faculty members received it and were able to respond, skewing the results further.
Considering the immense population of the district, emailed surveys are the most viable way of reaching the bulk of students.
However, something more needs to be done to get a better response. Allot more response time; set up voting stations or polling sites; promote the survey on digital signage players.
Make the effort to get the response necessary to take an accurate report to the committee.