Opinion

Where did you go?

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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:

• The Invisible Man Award: Wyndham Manning (May 7, 2009)
• The People's Choice Award: Jacqueline Hitchon et. al (May 7, 2009)
• The Lifetime Achievement Award: ASM (May 7, 2009)
• Honest representation (May 5, 2009)
• Junger for ASM Chair (May 5, 2009)

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If you stopped going to class, would anybody notice?

Maybe, but only until another student was admitted to take your place.

While UW boasts a higher-than-average retention rate, Bascom Hall has no idea why many students drop out every semester. Last week, student-government leaders began a campaign to urge the administration to find out why by conducting surveys of students who do not return. Specifically, ASM leaders want the administration to find out why students of color drop out at rates alarmingly higher than other students.

While the virtues of conducting exit interviews are apparent to everybody, including the administration, they are not very feasible. Students do not announce—let alone explain—their decisions to drop out. Moreover, telling UW where to find them is hardly a concern for these ex-students. This makes widespread surveys incredibly time consuming and cost prohibitive.

Much less expensive and perhaps more valuable are undergraduate satisfaction surveys. The telephone survey, run by the UW Survey Center, was annually conducted throughout the 1990s. But since 1999, only one such survey has taken place (in spring 2000), and there are no plans for this year. This is a trend that should be reversed.

The undergraduate satisfaction survey polls a random sample of students still enrolled at UW. The poll asks students about everything from the quality of teaching (very high), to advising (mixed), to ASM (“appears to be irrelevant to a large proportion of students”). The survey also uncovers complaints relevant to ASM’s campaign—for instance, in the last year the survey was conducted, researchers found students of color generally less enthusiastic about UW than majority white students.

UW should reinstate these (relatively) inexpensive surveys. Not only will it be far easier to find subjects for the survey, but the administration will also have a chance to know what students dislike before they drop out.

Still, we do see value in limited drop-out surveys, particularly of students of color. Considering the large amount of money spent on diversity programs like Plan 2008, it is important to understand why these programs are failing. Before millions of dollars more are spent blindly, it is worth it to find out what areas need the most attention in order to improve the below-average retention rate of students of color.

Fortunately, the UW already has such plans. The Academic Affairs Subcommittee of Plan 2008 has been charged with the task of conducting follow-up interviews with students of color who do not enroll, beginning this year. Additional benefit could be found in standardizing the follow-up surveys conducted by many individual schools and departments.

Through these efforts, UW has the opportunity to fix problems before students leave, as well as provide some means of accountability for Plan 2008.