Table of Contents

Respondents also rated most campus staff as at least moderately responsive to their needs. For those staff rated by more than 50% of the respondents, library staff and campus-sponsored recreational staff received the highest satisfaction ratings.

In support of the satisfaction ratings on the five advising items, many positive advising experiences were recalled in the open-ended comments. One student said, "I had a really great advisor, she was very knowledgeable and helpful every time I talked with her." Another student said, "I had a particularly competent and caring advisor who was always mindful of my needs and opportunities for growth/advancement." What makes for good advising? One student who was "extremely satisfied with my advisor" recalled that "if my advisor didn't know an answer to a question he researched it until he did have an answer or knew where to get one." According to the open-ended comments, students were most satisfied when advisors "provided excellent support and information," and were "very responsive and easy to approach."

Although the majority of students were satisfied with advising, at least one-fifth of students expressed dissatisfaction with the experience. One student stated, "My advisor couldn't have cared less about me or my needs." Another student said, "The reason I did not graduate on time is that I received extremely poor advising." Advising was also mentioned by a student who was otherwise pleased with the NC State: "The only thing I was really dissatisfied with was the advising experience.... they ran us through like cattle. Finally, a respondent observed that "Professors seem to have the attitude that advising is a necessary evil in their jobs. I think it is the most important because they are helping guide the direction of students' lives." Of the 739 student comments for improving undergraduate education at NC State, 160 (22%) recommended improving advising.

To improve academic advising, students suggested "advising classes for professors" and "ensure that academic advisors are trained." Another student suggested that NC State "have advisors trained to answer students' questions and find them an incentive to do so." While most responses recommended that professors improve their advising, a few comments suggested that others might be able to perform this service more effectively. One student recommended, "Hire people who only advise because the professors are busy enough and don't have the time." Another student said, "This university needs to find a way to eliminate advising duties for those instructors who do not have time or can not make time for proper advising." As these comments suggest, some undergraduates thought that advising at NC State had much room for improvement.

Academic Areas

Respondents also rated their satisfaction with the quality of 14 other academic areas. As shown in Chart 2, library services received the highest rankings: 68% of students indicated they were very satisfied with the 24 hour library service and 28% were moderately satisfied. In terms of the quality of overall instruction, only 25% were very satisfied, but 67% were moderately satisfied. The lowest satisfaction ratings were received for the adequacy of laboratory and classroom facilities.

For several of the items under academic areas, significant differences were found by gender and ethnicity. Compared to males, females provided significantly higher ratings of overall course diversity and availability. Females also rated the 24-hour library service higher than males. In terms of ethnic differences, two of the academic area items had significant differences by ethnicity. The diversity of courses overall and the opportunity to participate in co-curricular activities were both rated higher by whites than by other minorities.

Classroom instruction

In the open-ended responses, academic areas such as classroom teaching and instruction were common areas of concern. In the open-ended responses, there were 739 comments on recommended improvements and 416 comments on student satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Together, these questions resulted in a total 1,155 open-ended comments, 173 (15%) of which involved teaching. Although the forced-choice questions indicated that 92% of respondents were moderately or very satisfied with the quality of instruction, 78 of the 173 teaching comments indicated that some professors could dramatically improve their teaching skills. The open-ended responses also revealed why a small percentage of students were dissatisfied with classroom instruction.

Some students had difficulty understanding what their instructors were saying. As one respondent recalled, "One thing I have run into is teachers who do not speak clear English. This is a problem for many students. Not only do you have to learn the material, you have to interpret it too!" Another observed, "Nothing pisses off students more than getting a bad grade in a class because they cannot understand the professor." To address this problem, one recommendation stated that "all instructors should be able to teach classes in English." Of the 173 teaching comments, 8 indicated that students experienced difficulty understanding the speech of their classroom instructors.

The quality of instruction was another area of concern. Of the 173 teaching comments, 19 responses were favorable, 76 were neutral, and 78 were negative. Favorable responses included comments such as, "Most of my teachers have been wonderful and very helpful," and "Teachers were excellent, fair, and understanding." There were also negative comments: "Many instructors seem to have immense intelligence but are not very good at teaching," and "Some instructors acted like they did not want to teach undergrads or were to busy to teach at all." The words of one student captured the mixed views of teaching: "The majority of professors I had were very knowledgeable, helpful, and intellectually stimulating. However, I have come across a few that I believe should not be teaching here." In examining both the forced-choice and open-ended responses, a clearer picture emerged: most students seemed to think that although a few professors were poor teachers, the majority did a good job teaching.

For the small percentage of poor teachers, students urged that something should be done. One student recommended that "professors take classes in teaching skills." Another student asked, "What kind of incentives do you give professors for them to strive to teach better?" Eleven comments suggested that revamping or eliminating tenure would make faculty more accountable to the students they teach. Regardless of tenure or tradition, students emphasized that they should not be paying money to take classes from the small percentage of professors who were consistently rated as poor teachers.

Student evaluations of teachers

Student evaluations of teachers were seen as another way to improve classroom instruction. Numerous students expressed frustration over what they perceived as a failure to seriously consider and act on teaching evaluations. As one respondent asked, "What is the point of filling out these sheets if they are not taken seriously?" Another student recommended that NC State "actually read and listen to students' teacher evaluations." Other comments included, "Teacher evaluations need to be taken seriously," and "Make students feel like teacher evaluations matter." Of the 173 open-ended comments on teaching, 25 recommended that more attention be paid to students' evaluations of teachers

Students also recommended that observable action follow from the teacher evaluations. Suggestions included, "Take stronger action on the input from course evaluations" and "Look closely at teacher evaluations and act upon how the students respond." Although students thought that evaluations had the potential to inform and improve teaching, they sensed that little or no action resulted from their efforts and thus took a skeptical and cynical view toward teacher evaluations.

In addition to recommending that evaluations be given more serious consideration, several comments indicated that fellow students should have access to teacher evaluations. One respondent said, "Student evaluations should be made available for other students to see. We are paying for our education so we should be entitled to see what we are paying for." Another recommended, "Make professor evaluations easily accessible and stress to students that they are available and how to locate them." As these comments indicate, students believed they had a right to see how fellow students had evaluated teachers.

Teaching vs. research

Related to concerns about classroom instruction, 29 of the 173 teaching comments raised questions about NC State's teaching vs. research priorities. As one undergraduate recalled, "It was disturbing to realize that the primary concern of many professors is not teaching, as I had initially thought, but research." Another observed, "Although they may be great researchers, some professors are not very good at teaching in the classroom." Other comments were more pointed: "I feel undergrads are being cheated out of quality teaching for the benefit of graduate students and the research of professors." In support of this view, another undergraduate noted that "the unwritten rule of 'publish or perish' shortchanges the students." Finally, a student described the relationship between research and teaching: "As the research load of the professor goes up, the teaching effectiveness goes down." As these comments suggest, many undergraduates thought that NC State regarded research as more important than teaching.

Recognizing these mixed priorities, other students offered a solution: "The best scenario would be professors who only teach and those who only do research." Another stated, "Excellence in teaching should be rewarded just as highly as excellence in research." Although the large majority of responses did not question NC State's dual emphasis on teaching and research, 29 of the 173 teaching comments suggested that NC State valued research more highly than effective classroom instruction.

Non-Academic Student Services

Respondents also rated their satisfaction with non-academic services such as residence halls, financial aid, and career planning. As shown earlier in Table 1, the response rate varied widely for many of these items, and caution should be used in interpreting satisfaction ratings for those student services with a low response rate.

Results are displayed in Chart 3. With the exception of food services, 2/3 of respondents were satisfied with the non-academic services. There were no significant differences by ethnicity, but differences were found for several items by gender. Compared to males, females provided higher satisfaction ratings for registration and records and for bookstore services and products. However, females provided lower satisfaction ratings in terms of personal safety on campus.

Student awareness of services

Many students indicated that NC State offers a wide variety of opportunities and services. However, some students expressed disappointment that, despite the freshman orientation, they did not discover opportunities until late in their education. Lack of awareness about some services may be partly responsible for the high degree of non-response to many of the forced-choice items (see Table 1). One graduating senior suggested, "Make freshman and sophomores more aware of the opportunities to get involved on campus." Another said, "Make students keenly aware of all the services they are paying for so they realize all that they have to take advantage of." While most comments recommended increasing the awareness of freshman, a few students said that NC State should also do a better job of communicating the graduation requirements to seniors. Of the 739 recommendations for improving undergraduate education, 30 suggested increasing students' awareness of opportunities at NC State.

Campus safety

In terms of campus safety, the forced-choice responses indicated that 80% of students reported feeling moderately or very satisfied with campus safety. However, females provided significantly lower ratings than males, and the open-ended responses indicated that a small minority of students were very dissatisfied. Of the 739 open-ended comments, 31 students (4%) expressed dissatisfaction with the level of campus security and personal safety. As one student recalled, "When I recommend classes to my friends, the No. 1 excuse against night classes is that they would be afraid to walk the campus at night." Fourteen comments recommended increasing the lighting on campus after dark.

Parking and transportation

Although the survey did not include questions about parking and transportation, the open-ended responses revealed that for some students, these areas were a major source of dissatisfaction. Eighteen students recommended improving transportation through Wolfline or monorail, and 74 students recommended better parking. One student observed that "Parking here is terrible! Build a deck or monorail... whatever it takes." Another recommended that NC State "Do something about parking. Currently, stickers are too expensive and parking tickets are even more expensive." Similarly, a commuter student bemoaned the parking situation, saying, "Fighting the city parking police was an annoyance, but the only other option was to pay an extortionist's sum for a campus parking permit that did not ensure a decent parking space." Finally, a student pleaded, "please figure out a better solution to parking." In all, 92 out of the 739 comments (12%) recommended improving parking and transportation.