Some housing surveys are actually optional.
The Office of Student Development is asking students living in dorms and Central Campus apartments to participate in a national survey about their residential experience.
"What we're trying to do is to solicit feedback regarding students' level of satisfaction on campus," said Dean of Student Development and Residential Education Barbara Baker.
The last time the Office of Student Development surveyed students about their experience living on campus was during the 1997-98 school year. However, previous surveys were homegrown and Duke-specific.
"This is a survey that is being administered at other colleges and universities across the country," said Baker. "Hence it [will not only] allow us to get our information back, but it will also give us an opportunity to benchmark against other institutions."
The Duke survey will be compared to results from peer institutions, as well as to national averages.
The surveys were handed out to dorm residents a week ago by resident advisors, and should be returned to RAs by tomorrow. Central Campus surveys were distributed by mail, and should be returned to the Central Campus service office.
Several of the questions deal with alcohol and drug consumption. Although Baker said the University was surveying alcohol use through several other means, she hopes that the results of this project could be instructive to the task force recently formed under Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Dickerson.
David Butler, director of the national survey, thought students would respond honestly to questions about their alcohol consumption. "Students have nothing to gain or lose by answering this question correctly," he said. "My experience is that students are overwhelmingly straightforward on a survey like this."
Even though the survey is national, the last 10 questions are Duke specific. Printed on a separate sheet of paper, they were added by OSD officials to probe issues such as community standards and security, as well as to determine the effectiveness of the quad councils, facilities and other student services.
The survey was developed by 16 housing operations professionals from around the country for the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International. The organization hopes to determine whether students feel their housing experiences match the ACUHO-I standards.
Last year, the association's survey was conducted at 158 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
Butler said the great advantage of the survey is that it compares students' opinions on a national basis. Citing his experience in the University of Delaware's housing office, he said he was surprised by the results when he switched from using a university-specific survey to the national one.
"When compared to other schools, what we found was that things where we thought we were doing well on, students at other schools were a lot more satisfied," said Butler.
Because the Office of Student Development did not survey during the last school year, Baker hopes that this year's survey results will be even more useful.
"We had some good information for a couple of years and we want to see how opinions have changed or stayed the same," said Baker. "We hope this will be a continuation of our assessment methods."
Assistant Dean of Student Development Bill Burig noted that this survey will get the most productive results if many students complete the form. "If we get a poor turnout then we won't get very statistically good results," said Burig. "I make a plea that students please let us know what they are thinking. We really want to know a lot."
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