Students voice opinions on where their fees go

by Renée Rodgers

BELLEVILLE, Ont. (10/11/11) First-year industrial electrical students Tom Andrews (left), Justin Fox (centre) and Dylan Garey (right) said they come to the Link Lounge at Loyalist College every day. The student space was added after feedback from an annual student government survey indicated a need for more student-friendly environments. "The survey was pretty neat," said Andrews, who had recently completed it online. "I didn't think that there would be too much actual say on anything happening here." Photo by Renee Rodgers.

Loyalist College’s student government now has a clearer idea of how students want their college fees spent.

An annual student survey, which closed Nov. 9, consisted of 16 questions designed to provide student government with feedback about campus facilities, activities and resources.

“Its extremely important for us to get student feedback to help us determine how the students want us to spend their funds,” said Julie Cooper, student government business manager.

Survey questions are based on ideas about changes and improvements discussed by the student government, said Cooper. Feedback from the survey helps the student government gauge which ideas are most popular with students.

“We look for trends,” Cooper said.

For example, in previous surveys, a large number of students indicated a need for more student spaces on campus. Based on that feedback, the Link Lounge was opened in April, 2011. The new student space, which includes private meeting pods, seating for up to 100 and a wall made of living foliage, is the student government’s largest facilities enhancement project to date.

Other things that have been implemented as a result of past feedback have been the addition of hydration stations and microwaves around campus, upper year townhouses and increased exterior lighting on campus.

Questions on this year’s survey included: “What one thing requires the most improvement when you think of Loyalist College information technology?” and “Which area of residence would you most like to see improvements with?”

More than 1,000 people completed this year’s survey – around the same number as last year said Nancy Simpson, office manager for the student government.

While the number of participants did not vary much this year from last year, one thing that did change was the completion rate of those who participated. This year 87 per cent of students that began the survey completed it, compared to only 75 per cent last year.

“What that indicates is that some of the changes we made to the survey worked,” Cooper said. “We worked really hard at making the survey shorter so that students would go through the whole thing instead of only filling out parts of it.”

Kerri Wetherall, a second-year Loyalist College student in the community justice service worker program, agreed this year’s survey was faster and more streamlined than last year’s.

While she admitted the chance of winning up to $1,000 was a huge factor in her decision to participate in the survey, she said she realized the opportunity to provide her feedback was important.

“You’re paying quite a bit of money to go here and I think it’s important that students have a voice as to the changes that need to be seen within Loyalist,” she said.

Mandy Wrightsell, a first-year DSW student, said she not only appreciated the ability to give feedback, but also the evidence around campus that student feedback has been taken into account. This was not the case, she said, at her previous college.

“It’s different here,” she said. “It seems like Loyalist actually cares what their students think.”