FACULTY SENATE SURVEY

TABLE 1: BASIC FINDINGS

Based on the 12345 responses (first 32 questions), this chart shows the percent who agree or agree strongly, ranked from highest agreement to lowest. The percent who disagree or disagree strongly are displayed, as are the neutral/not sure percentages. Note that some items near the bottom of the chart have majorities or pluralities who disagree and some have pluralities or majorities who are neutral/not sure. For each item, the highest percentage is shown in bold.

The last column is the number of people (not %) who listed the item as one of their top priorities. Many people listed no top priorities, thus the number is used instead of a percentage. The table following this one gives a complete list and breakdown of top priority items.

Total responses: 109 out of about 185 (59%); not everyone answered all questions.

SURVEY ITEM	% agree	% neutr	% disag	# top prior
30. Increase College endowment	96	3	1	51
25. Work toward reaching AAUP #1 rating in salaries at all academic ranks for tenure-track faculty	90	6	4	55
32. Ensure that teaching excellence remains the primary criterion for tenure and promotion	89	6	5	20
24. Increase compensation for part-time adjunct faculty to at least $3,500 per course	87	7	6	6
23. Ensure entry-level compensation for faculty is always competitive and that, where appropriate, start-up funds are made available	80	14	6	6
1. Adopt and implement a six-course teaching load	80	7	13	53
11. Coordinate and strengthen faculty development programs	76	17	7	15
12. Implement a Professional Development Account for faculty	74	18	7	21
18. Increase number of incoming minority group students	72	21	7	15
28. Survey employee satisfaction with current benefit program	70	26	4	2
26. Make familiarity with and affirmation of liberal arts education a criterion for hiring faculty	68	19	14	9
19. Increase number of incoming degree-seeking international students	65	26	9	1
17. Secure endowment funds to support student and student-faculty research and to assist faculty efforts to secure funding for research involving students	64	23	13	11
31. Explore cost savings through greater collaboration with other institutions	58	32	10	2
8. Increase pool of available faculty to teach First Term Seminar	57	36	7	4
3. Retain January Term	57	19	24	21
7. Increase opportunities for integrating appropriate information technology into course content & pedagogy	56	34	10	4
15. Seek to fill available positions with appropriately qualified American minority-group persons through aggressive recruiting, networking, and support programs	54	25	21	12
13. Further develop internship programs and experiential learning opportunities for our students	50	35	15	3
5. Place a special focus on advising for graduate schools and national awards	47	34	20	1
6. Coordinate on-campus academic programs with off-campus and co-curricular programs	47	31	22	1
14. Place a special emphasis on identifying, hiring, and supporting faculty committed to developing programs and courses reflecting contributions of American minority-group persons and other national groups on American and global culture	45	29	26	4
10. Strengthen orientation programs for new faculty	41	33	26	4
9. Devote more resources to Interdisciplinary studies courses & faculty	39	29	32	6
2. Adopt and implement a foreign language requirement	36	18	46	7
21. Increase percentage of students living on campus to 90% of student body (now 80%)	34	41	25	1
29. Explore folding current flex plan dollars into regular pay for all employees	29	46	25	0
4. Review and strengthen Curriculum II	29	51	20	5
27. Provide a strong orientation and ongoing workshops focusing on the significance of the church-relatedness of the College	28	30	41	6
22. Initiate discussion of implementing post-tenure assessment prior to next NCA accreditation visit	27	22	51	1
20. Increase number of first-year and transfer applicants	24	50	26	0
16. Make support of service learning a consideration in tenure and promotion	19	30	51	0

TABLE 2: TOP PRIORITIES

This table lists the number of people who listed items as top priorities (25 of the 109 respondents listed nothing for this question). Note that some people added their own items (things not asked on the survey) as priorities; these are italicized in the table. The far column lists the number who made that item their top or #1 priority.

SURVEY ITEM	Number listing	Number listing item as #1
25. Work toward reaching AAUP #1 rating in salaries at all academic ranks for tenure-track faculty	55	17
1. Adopt and implement a six-course teaching load	53	26
30. Increase College endowment	51	20
3. Retain January Term	21
12. Implement a Professional Development Account for faculty	21	3
32. Ensure that teaching excellence remains the primary criterion for tenure and promotion	20	4
11. Coordinate and strengthen faculty development programs	15	3
18. Increase number of incoming minority group students	15	1
15. Seek to fill available positions with appropriately qualified American minority-group persons through aggressive recruiting, networking, and support programs	12
17. Secure endowment funds to support student and student-faculty research and to assist faculty efforts to secure funding for research involving students	11	1
26. Make familiarity with and affirmation of liberal arts education a criterion for hiring faculty	9
2. Adopt and implement a foreign language requirement	7
9. Devote more resources to Interdisciplinary studies courses & faculty	6	1
23. Ensure entry-level compensation for faculty is always competitive and that, where appropriate, start-up funds are made available	6
24. Increase compensation for part-time adjunct faculty to at least $3,500 per course	6
27. Provide a strong orientation and ongoing workshops focusing on the significance of the church-relatedness of the College	6
4. Review and strengthen Curriculum II	5
7. Increase opportunities for integrating appropriate information technology into course content & pedagogy	4
8. Increase pool of available faculty to teach First Term Seminar	4
10. Strengthen orientation programs for new faculty	4
14. Place a special emphasis on identifying, hiring, and supporting faculty committed to developing programs and courses reflecting contributions of American minority-group persons and other national groups on American and global culture	4
Increase number of FTE faculty positions	4
Better benefits in general and/or for families	4	1
13. Further develop internship programs and experiential learning opportunities for our students	3
33. Facilities priorities (see facilities table for breakdown)	3
Eliminate January Term	3
28. Survey employee satisfaction with current benefit program	2
31. Explore cost savings through greater collaboration with other institutions	2
Restructure General Education/Curriculum I	2	1
Reduce class sizes - in general ed. courses, overall	2	1
Strengthen academics/all programs	2
Focus on making Gustavus unique, distinctive	2

1 response each (bold if indicated as top/#1 priority):

• 5. Place a special focus on advising for graduate schools and national awards

• 6. Coordinate on-campus academic programs with off-campus and co-curricular programs

• 19. Increase number of incoming degree-seeking international students

• 21. Increase percentage of students living on campus to 90% of student body (now 80%)

• 22. Initiate discussion of implementing post-tenure assessment prior to next NCA accreditation visit

• Create and purposefully implement community-building activities

• Achieve a general balance between resources and academic program endeavors

• Increase department budgets

• Have money for sabbaticals in budget

• More office/class/space for art programs

• More attention to department programs over general education and interdisciplinary programs - make major programs a priority

• Integrity of on campus academic program

TABLE 3: FACILITIES PRIORITIES

This table presents responses to question 33, facilities priorities. Some respondents indicated they agreed with the present list; many others left this question blank. The figures below should accordingly be interpreted with some caution, although it is clear that the existing list (international house, Old Main, residence halls) has its fair share of supporters. Responses indicating completion of the Campus Center were excluded, since it is nearly complete already; the numbers for International House are probably low for the same reason.

Many respondents mentioned the same general facility or area of campus, but with different ideas about what is needed. Where applicable, the range of ideas mentioned is included with each item.

FACILITY	Number mentioning
Social Science Center - renovate and/or tear down and start over	27
Old Main - renovate, improve accessibility	25
Arts space - more space for fine arts programs generally (more specific options listed separately below)	17
Academic space - classroom building, classroom upgrades/renovation (incl. technology), more office space for faculty, more "mid-sized" spaces (around 100 people capacity)	17
Residence halls - renovate existing, build new	14
New concert hall - one much larger than Bjorling (1500 seat capacity)	7
International House	6
NONE - indicated building should not be a priority	4
New theater - incl. renovation of Anderson	3
New space for dance program	3
Lab science instrumentation	3
Performance space - general for arts (theater, dance, music)	2
Music space - studios, performance, offices	2
Library - expansion of building, more materials	2
Accessibility - address needs across campus	2
Architecture - build better looking buildings than recent efforts	2
Tear down tennis bubble	2
Arboretum expansion	1
More park space on campus	1
Space for Peace Studies program	1
Drain South Mall "swamp"	1
Move football field	1
Outdoor tennis courts near tennis bubble	1
Service learning office - create a better space	1
Parking	1
Preserve historic buildings on campus	1

TABLE 4: ADDITIONAL PRIORITIES AND OPEN-ENDED ANSWERS, COMMENTS

Respondents mentioned over 50 different items not covered by the survey questions. Some of these items have been incorporated into Table 3 covering facilities needs; others have appeared in Table 2 as top priorities mentioned. Here is a complete list of what was listed.

The number in parentheses before each item represents how often it was listed. Items are listed in descending order of frequency.

(7) increase number of FTE faculty positions

(6) better benefits in general and/or for families

(4) improve leadership of administrators - more focus and direction for the College

(3) eliminate January Term

(3) stop proliferation of paperwork, committees

(3) reduce class sizes - in general ed. courses, overall

(3) healthier relations between faculty and administration/dean of faculty

(3) upgrade administration's and dean's accountability

(3) technology - discuss how will it affect classroom education, role of Dept. of Information Technology - more responsive to faculty needs

(2) restructure General Education/Curriculum I

(2) regular faculty assessment of president, dean

(2) lab science instrumentation

(2) include all constituencies of College to draft strategic plan

(2) strengthen academics (all programs)

(2) endowed chairs - have more of them, make their focus special

(2) increase department budgets

(2) focus on making Gustavus unique, distinctive

(2) create and purposefully implement community-building activities

(1) - all of these mentioned once

• cost-neutral international programs for students in 3rd World nations

• contractual commitments to Gen Ed, special programs

• move toward environmentally friendly campus buildings, grounds

• no in-house capital campaigns

• increase library funding

• increase travel funds

• recruit more minority students from Twin Cities schools

• support current broad-based programs

• concert hall

• have money for sabbaticals in budget

• space for service learning (community service) office

• more moving funds for new faculty

• provide support for faculty who modify courses to show the connectedness of different (existing) disciplines

• compensation/course reduction for major committee work

• direct energy and funding for diversity programs elsewhere

• more office/class/space for art programs

• partners benefit program should include diff. sexes unmarried, two single people, siblings & relatives, not just same-sex

• tenure and promotion criteria away from growing research-professonal activity emphasis

• merit pay

• more attention to dept. programs over general ed and interdisciplinary programs - make major programs a priority

• use current facilities better, e.g. scheduling 8 am classes

• abolish divisions - useless

• improve faculty morale

• better articulation of international aspect of mission statement into the active program of the College (curriculum, staffing, students)

• make Gustavus more welcoming to non-Christians

• educate trustees, benefactors, for affirming REAL liberal arts education

• community outreach that is more than service learning

• need more time - our scarcest resource

• increase endowment then shrink student body

• redundancies of courses and proliferation of programs without comparable cutbacks

• pay all employees a good wage (support staff)

• improve res halls on campus/student housing

• achieve a general balance between resources and academic program endeavors

• integrity of on campus academic program

• support personnel for maintenance of instrumentation in all natural sciences