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Hoping to buy a Spring Formal ticket?
Read up on some policy changes.

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The 2015 Students Speak Survey was
administered online by IIT’s Center for
Research and Service The survey was emailed
out to all IIT undergraduate and graduate
students and allowed them to respond
between October 26 and November 17, 20151
A committee of students identified university
services that students interact most with and
can give feedback on The survey committee
is also supported by Dr George Langlois, the
Executive Director for the Center for Research
and Service as well as IIT’s Leadership
Academy

The survey sought to determine
students’ satisfaction with 12 different “service
areas," or facets of campus that students
often interact with: Academic Advising,
Community Affairs, Career Services, Dining
Services, Facilities/Grounds, Financial Aid,
Graduate College, International Center,
Library, Residence and Greek Life, Student
Government Association, and Student Bar
Association Compared to the previous school

SLIPSTICK

Check out some poems by IIT
students.

SPORTS

IIT’s tennis team is headed to
nationals!

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Student newspaper of Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928

Students Speak Survey results highlight areas of improvement for student life

Kori Bowns
LAYO UT E DITO R

year’s Students Speak Survey, the student
response rate increased In 2014, 39 percent of
IIT students overall responded compared with
40 percent for 2015’s survey For each service
area identified in the survey, respondents first
determined whether they have used the service
within the past school year If the student
answered that they had, a variety of questions
were then posed to the reader Across all of the
service areas, a few common questions were
asked about each one These core survey items
concerned whether the service provided a
timely response to questions, treated students
with respect, provided accurate information,
and provided quality service Then, each
service had some customized questions as well
as openeended questions for students to give
more specific feedback

According to the Executive
Summary of the Students Speak Survey
released in January and made available for
students to view on MyIIT, overall student
satisfaction has improved Across the survey
results, undergraduate students tended to rate
items lower than graduate students’ ratings
of the same items One visible exception to

Academic Advising: Custom Items

 

How many times did you meet or communicate with your
academic advisor during the Spring 2015 semester?

Undergraduate Adviser Graduate Advisor

Graduate ResearchAdvrsor Co~iermmal Advisor

”4

 

IUumes Hume uzrunes Idormorelrmes

this trend is in the service area of Student
Government Association, where 11 percent
of undergraduate respondents rated the
service unfavorably across the common survey
items compared to 18 percent of graduate
students The Executive Summary says that
the “University Overall" category score
increased 2 percent from 2014; this is a second
consecutive increase since 2013 According to
the summary, “The most favorably rated item
(94 percent) asked students if they feel they
are treated with respect by IIT staff The least
favorable item (73 percent) asked students
if they feel like a valued member of the IIT
community The item that had the greatest
positive change asked students if they feel safe
on campus" This year, 85 percent of students
positively responded when asked if they feel
safe on campus; this is a 7 percent increase
from the 2014 survey

When comparing all of the service
areas and the common questions that were
asked about them, a few interesting statistics
stand out When comparing to data from the
2014 survey, only one service area had decrease
in overall satisfaction among all students,

Career Services: Custom Items

TUESD
FEBRUARY 23,
2016

Volume 184 I Issue 5

technewsiit.com

OPINION 2
CAMPUS 3-5
AErE 6
SLIPSTICK 8-9
SPORTS 10-11

 

Dining Services, which had an overall 2
percent decrease All other service areas had
an overall increase, had no change compared
to last year’s data, or were not a part of last
year’s survey The service area with the greatest
positive change was IIT’s Career Services, with
a 6 percent increase in overall satisfaction

The Executive Summary also points
out the individual survey items that had the
highest positive response and highest negative
response 95 percent of respondents say
that our library staff have treated them with
respect, the highest positive response collectedr
Conversely, only 69 percent of students who
responded say that Dining Services provided
them with quality service

The Executive Summary continues
to analyze student responses and breaks down
each service area to look at responses and
determine ways the area can improve based on
student’s openeended submissions The entire
summary can be viewed on MyIIT under
the “Student Life" tab; some images from the
Executive Summary are published alongside
this article

 

Areas students want improvement & development (Overall)

- Favorane lNeulval I unvavnrade

Career Planning

Job Search Stralegles

Inlemiewing Skills

Etiquette 8. Dress

Communication Skills

Resume

 

a m 29 3a 4a

5n an m an so mo

Images Courtesy oflllinois Tech Student: Speak Committee; View Additional Images on Page 5

RHA Housing meeting covers Ethernet expansion, laundry machine maintenance, and more

Soren Spicknall
TEC H N EWS WRITER

On Valentine’s Day evening, while
many were out with their significant others, the
Executive Board of Illinois Tech’s Residence
Hall Association gathered with a group of
Floor Reps, RAs, and other interested residents
to discuss housing intheir first themed General
Body Meeting of the semester With Housing
Committee Chair and RHA Vice President
Khadijah Nesbitt presiding, the hourelong
meeting covered a slew of current topics in
the Residence Halls ranging from those that
require a single maintenance request to a few
that will require many semesters of negotiation
to even begin implementation Open input
on all topics (and indeed, on any housing,
related topics of participants’ choosing) was
encouraged, and a number of new issues
were brought to light for RHA to act on in
partnership with Residence and Greek Life

At the beginning of the meeting,
a few basic factual topics were immediately
coveredr Nesbitt and the entire RHA board
took questions about summer housing and
fall room reservations, and covered the costs
of each room type that will be available during
summer One of the key points of discussion
was a clarification that a meal plan is currently
required to be able to live on campus over
summer, and another point made was that
summer housing residents will be moved to

Gunsaulus and SSV due to planned work in all
MSV halls

Moving on from structured slides,
the discussion turned to open feedback and
suggestions for RGLI James Thomas, RHA’s
staff advisor, was on hand to collect feedback
in person in addition to discussing it at later
meetings with the RHA Executive Board First
up, the prospect of changes to Illinois Tech’s
cable television package was brought up, with
an emphasis on adding an online streaming
option for students to use While this idea was
extremely popular, it was acknowledged that
adding that feature would require a reduction
in channels to equalize costs, and the present
group wasn’t prepared to definitively name
any channels that could be readily removed
from the school’s current subscription RHA
members encouraged RAs to seek feedback
from their residents on the issue, and will be
using their own methods to gather input as
well

Next, the conversation turned to the
seeminglyperennial confusion overwhat issues
in the Residence Halls call for a maintenance
request, and what other options are available
to address problems that fall outside the scope
of a maintenance requestr Specifically, RHA
Executive Board members and Thomas both
reiterated that laundry machine breakdowns
are handled by Mac Gray through a separate
ticket system, and that students who notice
a broken machine should file a maintenance

request with Mac Gray, not with the University
Additionally, heating concerns were brought
up, leading to a discussion of the grounds for
an “emergency" maintenance procedure This
emergency procedure consists of informing
Community Desk Assistants of an immediate
problem, which can include an actively
flooding bathroom or (during winter months)
a broken heating unit CDAs are supposed to
act promptly on emergency issues, and RGL
occasionally calls in unscheduled maintenance
workers to deal with those issues on weekends
and other unstaffed hours

Finally, following the maintenance
request discussion, the group tackled the
recurring desire among certain students to
have upgraded and expanded Ethernet in
the Residence Halls OTS has been focusing
on improving the reliability of its WieFi in
recent years, and has stated that they would
not expand or repair Ethernet infrastructure
in the Residence Halls because such an effort
would distract from their focus on wireless
infrastructure However, as a result of feedback
gathered through RHA and the Students Speak
survey, Residence and Greek Life has opened
talks again with OTS about the possibility
of upgrading and maintaining those wired
connections

Because all the current Ethernet
connections in the Residence Halls use the
old CAT3 standard, any changes to Ethernet
would require each building to be completely

reewired for CATS in an operation that would
take place over summer break This would
involve large costs in buildings that are only
scheduled to be in use for about eight more
years, though that doesn’t necessarily mean it
couldn’t be done with enough student pressurer
However, because Gunsaulus is one of the
buildings that will be occupied for summer
housing this year, it likely wouldn’t receive
the upgrade until next summer at the earliest
Worklike this requires longeterm conversation
and coordination between multiple offices and
funding from the university’s administration
For that reason, changes are made in a very
deliberate, planned fashion to meet various
legal and fiscal standards RHA has heard
from many people that Ethernet should be
expanded, and is continuing to push RGL to
continue their conversation with OTS and
make it happen

RHA has a number of upcoming
General Body Meetings this semester which
will focus on specific themes like this one The
March 6, March 27, and April 17 meetings will
all have a theme, such as onecampus dining or
RHAecurated events, and all residents will have
the opportunity to voice their opinion and use
the organization to create positive change
All residents are technically Residence Hall
Association members, and the organization
exists to effectively communicate residents’
concerns to RGLI