Past residential life surveys focus on RAs & head residents

This archived article was written by: Heather Myers

Every year the residential life department conducts a survey of students living in the dorms. The focus of the survey in 2002-2004 was asking questions about the satisfaction of residential assistants and hall directors. In 2004, the surveys asked more questions concerning their satisfaction with dorm life and food service.
In 2002 and 2003 the survey was two pages and asked questions about where the student lived, whether or not the student had a roommate, how long the student had attended CEU and how long he or she had lived in residential life. In 2004 the survey was shortened to half a page and was simplified to six questions.
In 2002, 94 students took the survey; 51 from Aaron Jones; 1 from Burtenshaw; 32 from Sessions and 10 from Tucker. Forty-eight students lived in apartments; 12 lived in suites and 32 lived in rooms. Sixty-seven students had roommates while 25 had their own rooms. Seventy-two were female and 22 were male.
In 2003, 111students took the survey; 46 from AJ, 15 from Burtenshaw; 20 from Sessions and 30 from Tucker. Sixty-five students lived in apartments; 26 lived in suites and 20 lived in rooms. Fifty-eight students had roommates and 53 had private rooms. Sixty-nine were female and 42 were male.
Students were asked how long they had attended CEU. The survey also asks how long students had lived in residential life.
In 2002, 5 students had been here one semester, 60 students had been here two semesters, 4 students attended CEU three semesters and 23 had been here four semesters with 2 being here more than four semesters.
In 2003, 9 students had been here one semester with 68 students being here 2 semesters, 6 students three semesters, 24 were here four semesters and 4 had been here more than four semesters.
The survey also asked how many semesters students had been living in residential life. In 2002, 5 students had been living in residential life one semester, 61 students two semesters, 4 three semesters, 23 for four semesters and 2 more than four semesters.
In 2003, 9 students had been living in residential life one semester, 68 for two semesters, 6 three semesters, 24 for four semesters and 4 more than four semesters.
A question on the surveys in 2002-2003 was whether or not students were planning on returning to CEU the next semester and whether or not they planned to live on campus if they did return. In 2002, 56 students said they were planning on coming back to CEU, with 29 planning to live on campus, 31 responded they were not planning to return to CEU and 22 said if they did, they would not live in residential life.
In 2003, 71 said they were planning to attend CEU the next year and 51 said they would live on campus. Thirty responded that they were not planning on coming back to CEU, and 10 said that if they did come back, they would not live in the dorms.
The 2002 survey has a section for rating of the RAs and hall directors. The ratings went from 1 to 5 (with 1 low and 5 high), but the results all had averages all above 5.
The 2004 survey was shortened. It asks what dorm a student lives in and asks students to rate from 1 to 5 (1 low and 5 high) how satisfied they were with living on campus, their experience with maintenance and custodial services and with food services. There are two places on the new survey for students to write what they think, one question asks what student’s like about residential life and the other asks what can be improved.
Only the averages are given in the results. When asked to rank living on campus the average response: in AJ was 3.7, in Burtenshaw was 3.6, in Sessions was 4 and in Tucker was 3.7. When asked to rank maintenance, the average response in AJ was 3.5, Burtenshaw was 3, in Sessions was 2.6 and Tucker was 4.1. When asked to rank food services the average response in AJ was 3, Burtenshaw was 2.2, Sessions was 2.2 and Tucker was 3.8.
Every year the surveys have been conducted, the RAs drop numerous ones off in residents’ rooms and either picked them up at a later date or asked the students to place them in a box. Thus, all students did not complete a survey and a resident could fill out more than one survey.
There was no information given on the written responses from the students on any of the surveys and the numbers were taken from the results from the Residential Life Department.