You may have noticed a few emails from the University urging you to fill out its Enrolled Student Survey. While this email may fall by the wayside in terms of importance as we prepare for the end of the term and finals, this is one message from the administration that you shouldn’t delete without opening. It’s a survey that’s being issued to all freshmen, sophomores, pre-juniors and juniors, and it is our chance to give critical feedback to the University. Our responses could help change what we don’t like or provide insight into what we would like to see develop at the University. All year long we complain how the University “shafted” us in some way, believing that the only thing the University cares about is the money we pay to be here, but this is our opportunity to make our voices heard.
At first look, the survey may seem like any other bubble survey with options ranging from Very Satisfied to Very Dissatisfied, but that is not the case. If you mark off Very Dissatisfied for any of the questions, you will be prompted to further elaborate on why you feel this way. This is your chance to tell the University what’s been bugging you over the last year. Hate the Hans? Had awful experiences with professors? Did Drexel Central cause you serious issues? This is your real chance to have your complaints heard. Revise the rant you posted on Facebook to be more constructive and paste it right into the survey.
The survey aims to cover all aspects of the Drexel experience, with questions surrounding faculty and academics within your specific major, student life, administrative offices, on-campus living and dining, and more. Students are also asked to map out how many hours they spend each week preparing for classes, working, participating in student organizations and socializing, among other activities.
There is even an additional survey to take at the end related to the LGBTQA Student Center and LGBTQ resources within the Steinbright Career Development Center. Over the past year, Drexel has made strides to improve the LGBTQ environment on campus with the opening of the new student center and a desire to bridge the gap with LGBTQ students and the co-op experience. The questions on the survey are aimed to let Drexel know what works and what doesn’t and how the University can continue to improve in this area.
Despite the fact that the survey is mandatory, all of the questions are voluntary. While this gives students the ability to opt out of questions they are not comfortable answering, students should not abuse this by not filling out the survey. We honestly can’t expect the administrators to understand the individual complains of more than 10,000 undergrads without a service that will reach us all. Luckily, they’re trying to do just that. So take the time to fill out the survey honestly and completely, and help them build us a better University.
If we expect the University to change in ways we want it to, we need to take every opportunity to let administrators know what we want. They’re giving us an opportunity to voice our opinions, so it would be hypocritical to ignore the survey and continue airing our grievances with Drexel elsewhere.