Students are focused on their goals not only of graduation but also life after graduation, including employment and the potential of further study either specifically in graduate school or more generally as lifelong learners. To reach that goal, they see that the university needs to take steps in establishing student learning outcomes and improving instruction to help students master important knowledge and skills.
Administrators and staff seem more focused on students while they are on campus, giving higher priority to establishing learning outcomes and issues of student retention and facilitating graduation.
Lecturer faculty agree with students that instruction needs to be improved, and tenured/tenure-track faculty agree that it is important to prepare students for lifelong learning. Both faculty groups, however, place a low priority on student retention and facilitating graduation, perhaps seeing it as a technical matter or not a faculty responsibility.
The university will have to consider how best to communicate students’ goals of graduation and beyond to all campus community members. Student responses to the open-ended questions on the WASC survey (see accompanying report) shed more light on specific actions the university can take to make all campus colleagues aware of their responsibility to help students meet their educational and life goals.
