Talking Stick - September/October 2011 - 49

CONTINUED

Assessment Results

campus improvements, help identify areas where RAs require further training, inform action plans for each residence hall, and inﬂuence the long-term goals of the department.

with this programming. Perri and his staff continue to collect longitudinal data on these factors in order to record trends and ensure that their success continues. Daniel Bergen, assistant dean for university apartments and offcampus student services at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has utilized the insights from the ACUHO-I/EBI survey to improve the student dining and residential experiences. Faced with survey results that indicated negative sentiment among students relating to the value of the dining plan, the residential offerings, and the cost of these services, Bergen pursued a systematic approach toward improvement. Working closely with food service vendors, Bergen targeted students’ negative assessments of the service, environment, and ﬁnancial value attached to on-campus dining. Evidence from the survey analysis enabled Bergen to justify and implement a $4.5 million renovation of the dining halls. The ACUHO-I/EBI survey results also prompted them to provide RAs with better training and higher compensation. When the results drew attention to a particular residence hall that needed improvement, Bergen and his staff carefully parsed the survey responses, identiﬁed small changes that made the residence hall more welcoming, and achieved a signiﬁcant improvement in students’ quality of life. Survey results also revealed that they needed to improve on-campus housing and adjust housing costs in order to better compete with the off-campus housing market. Although he met with internal resistance, Bergen used the data to support a 12 percent decrease in residence hall rates. As a result, Marquette’s residences have had an occupancy rate near 100 percent for the past three years. At New York University, the Ofﬁce

Assessing Students and Services
As budgets become tighter, more data is required to determine how ﬁnancial resources should be allocated. At Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Joan M. Schmidt, associate director of residential life, employs the ACUHO-I/EBI survey results in a particularly meaningful way, uncovering some surprising insights into students’ perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors related to the widespread abuse of alcohol on campus. By pinpointing difﬁculties in student assimilation and better understanding students’ needs and concerns, CMU has taken steps to prevent alcohol abuse and improve students’ successful adjustment to college. As a result, CMU has seen a 0.8 percent increase in the number of students who cite oncampus residence programming as contributing to their understanding of the consequences of alcohol use. At Medaille College in Buffalo, New York, Jason Perri, director of residence life, found that students were expressing increased dissatisfaction with residence hall programming at a time when the college was facing ﬁscal difﬁculties. Using the ACUHO-I/EBI survey, he set numeric targets for improvement and then instituted changes to programming that had been suggested by the survey analysis. After implementing late night and weekend programming and using additional surveys to gauge students’ reactions, there was a 33 percent increase in student participation in programming and a noticeable amelioration in students’ satisfaction

of Residential Life and Housing Services’ Assessment Committee, led by Katie Bisang and Chris Stipeck, created a webinar to share survey results directly with residence hall staff to establish goals for improvement. The committee also worked closely with facilities and construction management, campus dining services, the Resident Assistant Council, and the Inter-Resident Hall Council E-Board to address speciﬁc areas for improvement, as identiﬁed by the survey. Jennifer Lenfant Wright, associate director for residence life at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, has led the development of a three-year cycle of assessment and improvement using the ACUHO-I/ EBI survey. After identifying key areas of student dissatisfaction, Wright explored the speciﬁc issues in focus groups and determined goals for improvement. As a result of this research, residential programming has increased by 28 percent, damage to residence halls has decreased, alcohol violations and student conduct problems have decreased, and alcohol awareness programs have become more effective. The school has created specialized residences such as the wellness-driven Summit Living community and a faith development community, both of which responded to student concerns expressed in the ACUHO-I/EBI survey. These programs and others like them have succeeded because of their continued commitment to knowledge-based decision-making and their use of assessment to shape strategies. TS

Lisa Hickey

is the marketing director for Educational Benchmarking Inc. Email: LHickey@webebi.com

SEPTEMBER + OCTOBER 2011

Talking Stick - September/October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - September/October 2011