In order to examine opinions regarding the Summit, the Design Team sent out an online on June 30th, 2010 inquiring about attendees’ reactions to the day’s events. We asked the following open-ended questions:
- What were some significant insights you gained at the Summit?
- What is the most significant change in the College that you would like to see as a result of your Summit experience (be as general or specific as you’d like)?
- How could we have made this Summit an even better experience for you?
- If you have any other general comments regarding the Summit and/or ways that we can build from Lafayette’s strengths, please list them below.
The response rate of the survey was excellent. Although it was only open to responses for a week, 77 of the 110 attendees (70%) filled-out a survey, which is a sizable enough sample to be able to make some generalizable observations.
The open-ended nature of the survey required a qualitative data analysis. This involved reading through every survey response to every question and assigning those responses to general themes. For instance, if one respondent said, “It was fun to meet new people.” and another said, “I was glad to have the opportunity to interact with people I’ve never met before”, we determined that these two responses shared the general theme, “Meeting new people”.
Though the process is somewhat subjective in nature, we tried to ensure some level of reliability and objectivity by having people assign comments to themes independently and then meet to discuss and resolve any inconsistencies. We found that although some inconsistencies existed, there were many generally pervasive themes that were easy to see from even a cursory reading of the comments.
Below, we present some of the more pervasive themes that we found in the survey responses. It is critical to note that we paid attention to ALL comments – even ones that could not be easily applied to a larger theme. However, for the purpose of presentation, we are posting only themes to which five or more comments applied.
The “Sum” column represents the total number of people whose response was consistent with the theme. The “% of Total” column represents the proportion of the total survey sample (77 people) whose response was consistent with the theme. The “% of Respondents” column represents the proportion of people who made any response at all to the question whose response was consistent with the theme (i.e., people who did not respond to the question were excluded from the denominator).
1. What were some significant insights you gained at the Summit?
| Theme | Sum | % of Total | % of Respondents |
| Meeting other people; building relationships | 24 | 31% | 32% |
| Learned how others view the college and about their roles | 21 | 27% | 28% |
| Similar thoughts on our strengths and how to improve/build on them (shared vision, mission and understanding) | 18 | 23% | 24% |
| Collective desire to work more collaboratively with each other | 17 | 22% | 22% |
| Concern about difference between faculty and staff (and between staff groups) | 10 | 13% | 13% |
| People feel supported and respected; Lafayette as a family | 8 | 10% | 11% |
| Good enthusiasm and positivity | 7 | 9% | 9% |
| Appreciation for co-workers commitment to the College | 5 | 6% | 7% |
2. What is the most significant change in the College that you would like to see as a result of your Summit experience (be as general or specific as you’d like)?
| Theme | Sum | % of Total | % of Respondents |
| Increase faculty-staff interaction. Staff and faculty should be treated equally. | 39 | 51% | 51% |
| Opportunity to gather casually/informally for social connections | 33 | 43% | 43% |
| Improved communication, collaboration, interactions between and among staff | 18 | 23% | 24% |
| Increased recognition for contributions, acknowledgement | 13 | 17% | 17% |
| Have community meetings led by President (all invited once or more per year) | 12 | 16% | 16% |
| Creation of staff senate (voice) | 9 | 12% | 12% |
| Changes to compensation (salary, tuition reimbursement, benchmarks for staff salaries) | 9 | 12% | 12% |
| Hold an annual celebration (Founder’s Day or Marquis birthday) | 7 | 9% | 9% |
3. How could we have made this Summit an even better experience for you?
| Theme | Sum | % of Total | % of Respondents |
| General Approval (with and without conditions) | 23 | 30% | 33% |
| Make it shorter (a whole day was too much; shorter, more frequent sessions; more lively; less redundancy) | 14 | 18% | 20% |
| General plans for and/or specific discussion of follow-up actions/next steps | 13 | 17% | 19% |
| More involvement of other campus constituencies (faculty, support staff, students) | 11 | 14% | 16% |
| More involvement of faculty specifically | 8 | 10% | 11% |
| Could have been held at a different time of year (not end of fiscal year; non-Summer employees) | 9 | 12% | 13% |
| More opportunity to get to know other attendees (both at assigned table and other tables) | 9 | 12% | 13% |
| Clearer information given with respect to general purpose and some discussion of specific goals/topics | 7 | 9% | 10% |
| More advance communication/publicity (could allow for better preparation beforehand) | 5 | 6% | 7% |
4. If you have any other general comments regarding the Summit and/or ways that we can build from Lafayette’s strengths, please list them below.
| Theme | Sum | % of Total | % of Respondents |
| Desire for follow-up actions/next steps | 20 | 26% | 38% |
| General Approval (with and without conditions) | 11 | 14% | 21% |
| More inclusiveness of other campus constituencies (faculty, support staff, students) | 11 | 14% | 21% |
| More inclusiveness of faculty specifically | 8 | 10% | 15% |
| Desire for more community-wide events | 11 | 14% | 21% |
| Desire for professional development – campus and general | 7 | 9% | 13% |
We hope that you that you found this summary of survey results useful. As the process of building from our strengths progresses, we will continue to consider these survey responses in determining how best to proceed.