OCTOBER 2023 COMMUNITY SURVEY

We conducted the October 2023 Trinity Community Survey in the week of October 9.  We asked students, faculty and staff to tell us how the fall semester is going — same as they expected, better than expected, or worse than expected.

• 92% of students replied that the semester is going same or better than expected, with just 8% indicating worse than expected.
• 96% of faculty replied that the semester is going same or better, with only 4% indicating worse than expected.
• 98% of staff replied same or better, with only 2% reporting worse than expected.

On the whole, these are very positive responses, higher than the same question posed in November 2022.

Student Comments:

“My professors have been very willing and understanding about my situation as well as the financial aid office.” (CAS)

“I’m excited about all the knowledge I have consumed people that I met and I love myprofessors. I’m glad I picked Trinity.” (CAS)

“I’ve been with Trinity for almost 3 years and I’m going to graduate in January. This fall school has been great but sometimes they are professors make it hard on us but so far it’s good to be a student at Trinity.” (CAS)

‘I absolutely love Trinity I’ve been here since 2020 and through all my hardships Trinity has been with me every step of the way.” (CAS)

“Managerial: Business Law should not be an 8 week class. There is a lot of information to interpret. I felt the professor move nicely through the for the amount of time we had but I know he/she wished she had more time to dig deeper into the course.” (BGS)

“I am an older adult who returned to school last semester. it was difficult adjusting. I say better than expected because I feel that I am more prepared. I am not satisfied with some of my grades but I do feel that I have a good plan to be successful in my courses.” (NHP)

“I imagined evening classes in-person to be dreadful, However, all of my professors have provided joyous and upbeat environments deliveries and environments thus far.” (SPS)

“The work load is more manageable then the syllabus indicated. The professors were able to adjust their expectations to a work load that was realistic and useful to the students.Professors give a lot of busy work to SPS students and I personally feel that it is counterproductive and students feel over whelmed: causing them drop or withdraw from classes.” (SPS)

Faculty and Staff Comments:

“Student attendance has not been as consistent as in semesters past. Other than that,participation has been good in my classes and students have commented in class that theyare applying what they are learning to current teaching assignments.” (PGS)

“Students appear to be more anxious. Probably associated with the state of the city.” (NHP)

“I expected to have a wonderful semester, and this semester, like the others before, have livedup to that expectation. The students are hard working, intellectually curious, respectful andcompassionate, and they make it a joy to come to campus every day.” (CAS)

“Coming from teaching at the University of Maryland, I find that students at Trinity are more engaged and work harder. I also find that my co-workers at the library are a breath of fresh air. So kind, and inviting.” (CAS)

“As a newer employee getting my bearings I was anticipating the fall semester being a bit overwhelming but it has been going much smoother than I anticipated.” (Staff)

“I am really enjoying working, learning, and growing in my position. I feel valued as a member of the Trinity community.” (Staff)

“I still feel overwhelmed at times by the amount of work. The wellness days are helpful, but thisis the time of the semester when things feel busy for me.” (Staff)

Rating Experience with Campus Services

We asked the community to rate a list of campus services.  Below is the aggregate response from students:

Compare the responses from faculty:

And responses from staff:

The comments for each group were voluminous, and as we analyzed the numerical results above and the comments, these issues are clear and topics we will address in the weeks ahead:

• In general, Library Services, Technology Services and general support from faculty and staff get high marks; getting all services to get high marks is a goal!
• Dining Services is the area receiving the most low scores and critical comments; we will review the scores and comments with our partners at Metz and work on ways to improve dining satisfaction.
• Student Activities and Residence Life received many comments, and these are areas where our staff is focusing on ways to improve the experience for students.
• Campus Shuttle schedule and the tracker received a lot of comments; we are working on getting the tracker up and running and the shuttle on a predictable schedule.
• Facilities modernization continues to be a topic of concern; we are continuing our fund raising program for Alumnae Hall renovation and looking at other ways to address some of the facilities issues.
• Communication is a theme through the comments; some members of the community are unaware of events, processes, services that are available.  I have asked our senior staff to evaluate the comments and determine ways to improve communications, reliability and responsiveness for all offices and services.

Community Interest in Artificial Intelligence

In anticipation of the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence on October 27, we asked the community to tell us about their knowledge, concerns, practices with AI.  The answers are quite interesting!

• The majority of respondents are eager to learn more about AI.
• Faculty (45%) indicate they believe that AI will make their lives easier, but only 21% of students think so.
• A larger share of faculty (55%) fear negative consequences of AI, as do 49% of staff and 43% of students.
• 5% of students admit using ChatGPT to write a paper, compared to 2% of faculty and 7% of staff.
• 22% of staff already use AI tools at work, compared to 19% of faculty but just 5% of students
• NO faculty think we should “ban ChatGPT” while 6% of students want the ban.
• 74% of faculty do want an AI policy that allows them some discretion, compared to 31% for students.

Note that Trinity’s faculty has developed an AI policy statement that is currently going through committee review and we hope to have it adopted very soon.

Q5: What else would you like to tell us about your ideas for Trinity?

This question asked for response statements and we received a lot!  Below are excerpts that reflect general sentiments and in a few places I also provide answers or follow-up notes:

Student comments:

“Better refund on books or prices for books for students who pay out of pocket.” (CAS)

• We continue to monitor our online bookstore provider’s prices and practices; we will share the student sentiment with the bookstore provider.

“Bring back the in-person bookstore.” (NHP)

• Unfortunately, there is no bookstore provider willing to provide an in-person shopping experience today at Trinity or similar smaller institutions.  Even larger schools are having challenges keeping their campus bookstores since the big providers (e.g., Barnes & Noble) require a certain profit margin to sustain in-person stores.  The pandemic made the situation much worse for many universities as more classes moved online and everyone migrated to online shopping.  The post-pandemic revenue volume for campus bookstores declined considerably.  We are looking into the possibility of finding a small vendor to operate a store with sundries, logo products, snacks, but so far have not identified such a vendor.

“I would like to see study rooms at Trinity. I have gone to other campuses and they offer nice private study rooms and i think many students would benefit from them because it gives a peaceful and private environment to study.” (CAS)

• Several students made similar comments and given this level of interest, we will develop plans to create several study rooms.

“I think we should bring back the balls or dances so students can have more fun. also I think we should make more commuters lounges and to make the ones we have prettier. 🙂 Also we should find more ways to inform students of events that are happening on campus.”  (CAS)

“An online tour of the nursing floor (ex. Simulation classrooms, students in the simulation class as if in a hospital setting, student interview on how they are liking the program and a piece of advice to aspiring students).” (CAS)

“Trinity should consider in having a daycare, the majority of students are women, and some of us have kids, and it would be so much easier to have a daycare here that will make us study with tranquility and being secure that we have were to leave our baby.” (CAS)

• We know that child care is a huge issue for many Trinity students in all programs.  About 25% of all students have children, including about 20% of CAS students.  Unfortunately, the expense associated with providing child care in D.C. makes it impossible for Trinity to be a direct provider of child care.  However, we are working to develop spaces and policies that can be more “family friendly” including the lovely new Family Library space in the basement of the library.  We work closely with Generation Hope, the organization that has pioneered helping colleges to support students who are parents.  Trinity is one of just 13 colleges nationally to have received the Generation Hope Family Seal certifying our fulfillment of the “Family U” program requirements.

“Keep strengthening the online experience for the customer. Since attending in 2019- the school has made tremendous strides with the online experience.” (BGS)

“Get SPS more involved! Create a platform where the students can have their voices heard.Create a buddy system where these students can meet others and serve as accountability partners. Trinity is more than CAS. SPS is comprised of strong leaders that would serve the campus well. Allow them to have a Student Government as well.”

• We’d love to have more programming and engagement with our SPS students!  And yes, SPS should have a student government!  Dean Tom Mostowy and his team will reach out to SPS students to discuss the best ways to do this.

“We need better security service when it comes to anyone getting in campus. It’s not a safe situation because anyone can get on and off campus with no problem which makes it unsafe. Parking needs a lot of help. Trinity is a growing school and many people commute but there’s not enough parking spaces to accommodate us all in both parking lots.” (NHP)

• We see a number of comments in the survey about parking and security.  Regarding security:  Trinity’s campus is not generally open to the public, persons coming onto campus must show IDs and register their cars.  We ask everyone’s cooperation with showing IDs.  In addition to the security personnel we have an extensive system of cameras that are monitored 24/7.  We are always evaluating ways to improve campus safety and welcome suggestions.   Concerning parking:  our studies show that we have ample parking on campus but, quite often, commuters do not want to go to the parking lots that are farther away — those who park in Cuvilly have the option to catch the campus shuttle as it loops around campus.

Faculty and Staff Comments:

“I wonder if we might invite young women from Afghanistan to come here to study, seeing how their educational aspirations are being stifled in their homeland. I am so proud to work at Trinity with our current students and faculty.”

• Would love to do this but we need to find sponsors to support tuition and living expenses.  Ideas?

“Continue working in communicating with students and staff since not knowing leads to speculation and eventually to misinformation. Campus Conversations is a good tool and I also like Trinity Times as they provide information about campus life. I know that it’s easy and cost effective to have access it online; I think that it would be a good idea to have it in print and place it in some areas as there’s so much info online that it’s challenging to keep up with it.”

• Agree, Trinity Times is great, and so many thanks to Chaz Muth and the student journalists!  Print version of Trinity Times would be very challenging right now — not just the cost of printing but also the labor required to produce a print version.  Perhaps this is something we can explore in the future. 

“In addition to advisors, who are of course available to help students with enrollment and procedural problems that may arise, I would like to see each incoming student with a mentor,who would initiate and schedule regular contact with the student to help keep them on target with assignments (and details of same, help academically, etc.) and act on anything to assure progress and regularly monitor it, helping when necessary.”

Thanks to all for your participation!  And join us for the Campus Conversations on Thursday, October 19 at 4 pm on zoom where we will discuss these results.