Many students may have already taken the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction survey, and almost all who have commented on it feel as though it is a “waste of time.” But the truth is, this survey is a very important tool for University of Cincinnati to understand the needs of its students. It asks questions about many aspects of the school from parking availability to what students get out of the classes they are taking. There are one hundred questions in the survey and each question is asked for a specific reason. But is it necessary to ask one hundred questions? Many students who have taken the survey believe it asks too many questions. One student stated that “the survey was too long and very repetitive. After a while, I stopped reading the questions and just filled in the bubbles.” For a survey of such great importance, this is probably not a response that the university would be happy with.
Surveys like the Noel-Levitz survey are very unpopular among students. “The fact that it is so long and not necessarily mandatory for me to fill out makes it even more obnoxious,” one student commented. Descriptors like “too long”, “repetitive”, and “obnoxious”, are not adjectives that would lead someone to believe that the survey is being filled out as seriously as it needs to be.
So what should be done here? Should the students be taking this survey more seriously? Or should the survey be presented differently by the university? Maybe the answer is a mixture of both. Students from all universities have opinions about what needs to be changed at their school to improve their satisfaction. This survey is their place to express those opinions and that needs to be understood by the students. But the bubble filling and repetitive, mundane questions are not hitting the spot for students here at UCBA. Hopefully the next round of students who take the survey will find that it is more catered to satisfying them as opposed to leaving them bitter.