Illustration by Estefania B. Alonso
By R. Eguia
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
St. Philip’s College students have the chance to share their views by completing the Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory until Wednesday.
The PSRI is designed to measure student attainment of the Quality Enhancement Plan.
The QEP is a requirement of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and is a multi-year project to improve an important aspect of student learning through broad-based involvement.
Ethical Decision-Making is the topic chosen by St. Philip’s College students, faculty, staff, administrators and external advisory committee members for the central part of the 2016 SACSCOC reaffirmation process.
The PSRI will also measure student-learning outcomes and assess the perceptions of students regarding opportunities for education in Ethical Decision-Making at St. Philip’s College.
Irene Young, QEP director and psychology instructor, said this is not the first time St. Philip’s students have taken this survey.
Last year, more than 600 students participated and Young said so far the students have been giving good feedback.
Young said Phi Theta Kappa students open the ethics discussion every Wednesday on campus by setting up a ‘What would you do?’ ethics exercise on both campuses.
Students are presented with ethics situations and enter their responses into an iPad to discuss results.
The PSRI assesses campus climate on five dimensions of personal and social responsibility that describe developmentally appropriate goals for students in college according to the PSRI website.
Striving for excellence; cultivating academic integrity; contributing to a larger community; taking seriously the perspectives of others; and developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning and action make up those five dimensions.
First, students will be asked some brief demographic questions and then asked questions about their own personal ethics. Students are encouraged to answer honestly and candidly and are assured the responses will remain confidential.
“This survey helps us understand how our own ethics and culture influence our decisions,” Young said. “We have to consider how other cultures view our experiences.”
This survey is being conducted on behalf of researchers at Iowa State University in conjunction with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
An institution must pay a total of $3,300 dollars to register and participate in this survey.
Young said the QEP team did a lot of research to find the most reliable and valid survey they could find.
Founded in 1915, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal ARTS education.
St. Philip’s College President, Dr. Adena Loston, said the college will use the data from this survey to continually improve the Ethical Decision-Making Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).
