Student Life and SGA working to make improvements

The Student Life and SGA offices are working hard to improve life at MVNU for students.

At the "A Time to Talk” event on September 23, Tracy Waal, Director of Student Life, shared with students and opened the floor for questions and comments. Waal spoke directly about how MVNU uses feedback from students to improve and make changes in certain areas.

The Student Life Survey is one of the ways that Waal and his team can gauge student satisfaction with several different aspects of campus life. The survey utilizes a two-part question system. The first half of a question asks students to rate how important something is to them, and the second part asks students to assign a number to how satisfied they are in that area. There is also a section for students to further express themselves on each question, should they wish to do so. This data is tabulated and gives a number for importance and a number for satisfaction. Waal and his team look at the gap between those two numbers to determine what areas of student life are not up to student expectations. “The bigger the gap, the less satisfied you are,” said Waal.

For example, according to the 2018 survey, “hearing student voice” was ranked 9.418 out of ten for importance to students. However, student satisfaction in that area was only 6.553 out of ten, showing a gap of 2.865. Depending on the size of the gap, Waal and the SGA determine what areas need improvement, and how much.

The survey has been conducted twice so far – 681 students responded this September. By comparing the gaps from the two surveys, Waal is able to see what areas showed marked improvement, what stayed the same, and what got worse over the course of one school year.

Waal said that he personally reads every comment left on the survey and is dedicated to making change in the necessary areas to improve life for MVNU students.

Image from MVNU SGA.