Institutional Research & Assessment

College Support Environment

SUU students used a 4-point scale (1 = very little, 2 = some, 3 = quite a bit, & 4 = very much) to rate the extent to which SUU emphasized a supportive college environment. Figure 10 provides the SUU responses. SUU students indicated that the institution emphasized using computers in academic work (M= 3.40) and spending significant amounts of time studying and producing academic work (M = 3.08). Senior students reported that SUU provides more support needed to thrive socially than seniors at master’s and NSSE institutions, and SUU seniors are more likely to attend campus events and activities.

First-year students reported that SUU placed more emphasis on attending campus events and activities and less emphasis on providing support needed to succeed academically, encouraging contact among students from different economic, social and racial backgrounds, and helping students cope with non-academic responsibilities such as work and family life, although freshmen’s ratings were higher than seniors’ ratings on these two items.

Figure 11 summarizes student support differences among seniors and first-year students at SUU and at master’s peer institutions as a point of comparison. In general, seniors and first-year have institutional environments that emphasize similar services and activities. SUU freshmen responded only slightly lower than students at master’s peer institutions.

| NSSE 2003 | Institutional Research |