Student Voices Update

In the February 11, 2020 issue of the Daily Flyer, there was information listed under Student Voices which included “Quality of Instructors” as a challenge for students based on results from the Fall 2019 feedback survey report. Of the students who responded to the survey, approximately 90 percent had a positive impression of our faculty. The short summary may have given the impression that the majority of students are challenged by the quality of instructors. As the head of the Office of Institutional Research (OIR), I regret this impression.

Presenting the results of the 25-page report without context was not the best way to deliver the information. Twelve percent of respondents (136 out of 1,131 respondents) indicated the quality of instructors as a challenge for a variety of reasons. Working with the chair of the College Senate and the interim Chief Academic Officer, OIR has now developed a protocol to prevent miscommunication from occurring in the future.

OIR will distribute the full report of the feedback survey which will put the results in context and demonstrate our students’ major challenges are not the quality of instructors.

In fact, over the last 20 years, our graduates have rated our faculty as “excellent” in most graduate surveys compiled by OIR.