Institutional Research and Planning Room 306 1871 Old Main Drive Shippensburg, PA 17257 Phone: (717)-477-1154 Fax: (717)-477-4077 irp@ship.edu

Undergraduate Student Satisfaction College students hold numerous expectations about their college experience. Understanding the expectations of students and their degree of satisfaction with college life can prove useful to those interested in improving the college experience of students. This report describes the important aspects of college life according to students at Shippensburg University and the amount of satisfaction they have with each aspect. The third administration of the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) took place during the Fall semester of 1997. The list of SSI participants was constructed from official enrollment files. Packets including the SSI were sent to the students’ departmental office with instructions for distribution to the students with their spring course registration materials. To increase interest and remind students to complete the instrument, advertisements were placed in the student newspaper and played on the campus radio station. During course scheduling, a table was set up in McLean Hall where participants could return their instruments. As incentive, a drawing was held for a $50.00 gift certificate based on all returned surveys with student IDs. While all areas were important to students, the most important to undergraduates were Academic Advising, Instructional Effectiveness, and Safety and Security. The least important areas to both SU undergraduates and students nationally were Campus Life and Recruitment and Financial Aid. The SSI results reveal that SU students generally have expectations that are similar to students nationally. One possible exception to this pattern would be in the area of Student Centeredness: SU students appear to place more importance on this area than other students. Undergraduates were most satisfied with Instructional Effectiveness, Academic Advising, and Student Centeredness. Compared to students nationally, the data show that SU students reported significantly greater levels of satisfaction across nearly all areas. Students rated SU significantly above the norm in satisfaction in the areas of Student Centeredness and Concern for the Individual. Performance gaps are areas where satisfaction lags behind student expectations. The largest gaps were in Safety and Security and Registration Effectiveness. These gaps were found in 1995 as well. Improvements (lower gaps this year than in 1995) were observed in Safety and Security, Recruitment and Financial Aid, and Academic Advising; specifically, the improvements were due to gains in satisfaction levels. Looking at the data item by item, SU generally outperforms similar universities at meeting student expectations. There were 182 sophomore and 239 senior responses. Differences between the two groups were very slight. Sophomores reported that Recruitment and Financial Aid was somewhat more important to them than it was to seniors. Seniors showed somewhat higher satisfaction levels, particularly with Academic Advising, Campus Climate, Concern for the Individual, Instructional Effectiveness, Recruitment and Financial Aid, and Student Centeredness. These results could be interpreted in several ways. First, they could indicate that the longer students stay at SU, the more satisfied they become. Second, they might reveal that dissatisfied students leave before they become seniors. More analysis of the data is needed to reach a definite conclusion. Finally, the results may reveal that services are provided differently to students at different levels. Data from the Graduate Satisfaction Survey may support this third possibility.