February 2022 Community Survey

311 members of the Trinity community responded to our February 2022 survey, a great response!  The participants came from all segments of our campus as the chart above reveals.  Thanks to all for your participation!

Mask Mandate Continues for Now

In the February 22, 2022 survey we asked your opinions on the mask mandate, and your responses are clear, with 85% indicating “agree” or “strongly agree” with the mask mandate:

Subsequent to the above survey, the CDC relaxed its guidance on mask requirements.  So, we took a second survey of the campus community and 60% of the resspondents continued to affirm the need to wear masks indoors at Trinity:

Some of the comments on the question of whether Trinity should relax our mask mandate:

• We have come this far with great communal success, and have only a half semester to go.
• Especially in NHP we are around patients and could make our classmates sick if we pick up COVID at clinicals in the next surge before the mask mandates are reinstated… why not just err on the side of extra caution
• Several of our students work in environments where there are children who cannot be vaccinated, or parents have decided to not have them vaccinated. As such, some are reporting they have tested positive – some a second and third time.
• I truly believe Trinity should requires wear masks still. The virus is not gone. Children under 5 years cannot get vaccine yet. We have younger children, elderly family members at home. We need continue to protect their health.
• I think we have had 2 long years of masks and everybody needs a break. The mask should be based on personal preference. People should where it if they want to but don’t mandate it for some of us that honestly need a break from it.
• COVID still exists. People are still being hospitalized, and people are still dying. We need to continue our mask mandate and our low traffic on campus.
• I think regardless of the CDC recommendation, we should continue to wear masks in consideration of the immunocompromised.
• I think in an area of low community transmission risk and high vaccination, such as Trinity, masks should be optional. I don’t really see the need any more.
• I think we need to respect people’s decision, to remain masked or to decide to unmasked should the policy be relaxed. I feel that people should now be able to make the decision themselves now that vaccines are widely available and transmission rates are low.
• We’re a small, caring community. Let’s keep our mask policy and keep our community safe!

How’s the Spring Semester Going?

Our February 22, 2022 survey asked once again how the semester is going for you.  We have asked this question in every survey since the beginning of the pandemic and the comparative results over time are very helpful as we consider making policy adjustments.  Here are the results for the February 22 survey, with comparisons from the Fall 2021 surveys for each group:

The February results indicate that while most of the campus population is doing relatively well, we have points of stress and concern.  Students are reporting higher rates of stress overall.  Faculty replies indicate improvement since the last survey, and staff results are just about the same.

Some students complained bitterly in their comment that the faculty expect too much.  This is a tough issue.  While we want to be compassionate and supportive of students, we also expect our faculty to maintain high academic standards and to be rigorous in their assessment of student mastery of learning.  I have asked Provost Ocampo and Deans Ramamurti, Noonan and Kachur to review the results carefully and discuss them with the respective faculties to consider appropriate solutions to the workload stress in some disciplines.

Select Student comments:

• Stressed out, COVID is not helping. I’m nervous. (NHP)
• Some of my classes are more challenging and time-consuming than I expected. I am more stressed out than usual. (CAS)
• Last semester was my first time ever being in college and seemed to be a bit overwhelming as far classes,work-life balance, etc. This semester I know what to expect, the professors are very helpful about making the assignments easy and we are still able to access or classes online rather than having to go in person. (SPS student at THEARC)
• I am feeling really motivated going through this semester. (CAS)
• One of my classes has a much larger course load than I had expected and I frequently spend 10-13 hours per weekend on the class. I found the 40-page syllabus, confusing, overwhelming and contradictory in many places.(EDU)
• During the pandemic, I chose to return to Trinity after receiving my AA degree from Trinity @THEARC in 2016. This semester has been a little stressful for me, as I have a full-time job and I am the caretaker for a disabled sibling and elderly parent. I have also had some personal health issues with myself and family. So, this has been the hardest semester thus far for me.(SPS)
• I am taking 5 classes all of which I am very interested in, so I expected to be doing good this semester, and so far, it is going good.(CAS)
• We are 5 weeks into the spring semester and I have never been more stressed in my life. I am a first year and my first fall semester was a lot better than the spring, the amount of work that some professors … have assigned is outrageous and personally not fair. I feel like I spend more time doing homework and studying rather than enjoying the true college life and I am not happy about it.(CAS)

Select Faculty Comments:

• The class is progressing, and I appreciate being able to help the students in the classroom rather than online. However, the students (and to be honest, myself) are exhausted by, I think, long-term stress and toggling between online and in-person learning. (CAS)
• Students are still stressed. Attendance better. Some students out with Covid Some students caring or affected by family with Covid Tardiness and absences still and issues with some student. (CAS)
• The students who have worked all day on fulltime jobs are visibly exhausted by the time that they get on Zoom for classes. Zoom has been a wonderful tool for students who can choose to attend classes while in their worksite or go to their home. Being able to avoid traffic to come to class after an exhausting day at work has been a God-send for many of the students. Many of them have verbalized the desire for the courses to continue to be on Zoom although they do miss the person to person interactions with their classmates. (PGS)
• The motivation for students seems to be lower than last semester. The excuses and lack of submitting assignments on time and poor work submission is worse than last semester. I think that students are just COVID fatigued with everything. (NHP)

Select Staff comments:

• I still feel overwhelmed by the virus. I do feel better than before, but it is still a heavy burden
• The schedule of three days in the office and working two days from home work well for me. From my point of view, it has cut down the cases of covid in the office.
• With the flexibility to work a couple of days at home and on campus, I fell that the semester is going great. I don’t feel as stressed as I thought I would. Things seem to be plateauing for now.
• The protocols in place have done a lot to reassure me that the campus is safe. It is nice to be seeing more students on campus. I do wish that colleagues were on campus more often.

Rating Experience With Campus Services

As with prior surveys, we asked you to rate your experience with campus services and these are the results:

On the whole, the majority of responses for all services are positive, but we have work to do to improve in some areas such as parking and dining services, both of which have been disrupted during the Covid pandemic.

Many of the comments to this question named specific persons and offices and I have referred those to the appropriate administrator.  A few thoughts on key problems:

1) Parking — we continue to evaluate the parking situation to address the ongoing concerns.  During the pandemic, many more daytime students have been driving to campus rather than taking public transportation.  We have not required parking fees or stickers, so the volume is much greater than in the past.  We will be evaluating how to move forward with an improved plan for everyone.

2) Walking from parking to Payden:  one of the reasons we created the campus shuttle loop was to be able to pick up parkers from the various lots along the way, especially Cuvilly and the Trinity Center lot.  Learn more about the shuttle schedule and see the shuttle tracker on our website here:  https://discover.trinitydc.edu/safety/metro-shuttle-status/

3) Emergency Grants: students who need emergency grants may contact Dr. Karen Gerlach, vice president for Student Affairs, or use the grant application here:  https://discover.trinitydc.edu/student-affairs/emergency-student-assistance/

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions at any time, please email me at president@trinitydc.edu