Low campus rating given by students

A formal presentation of the Student Needs And Priorities Survey was shown to the Resource Planning Process task force on Friday.

The presentation covered all the areas of the survey, keying on Cal State Long Beach's strengths, student services, and its weaknesses, availability and convenience of classes.

The survey stated that among the Cal State University system, CSULB ranked below average in terms of quality in every area related to instruction and the learning environment except for course work. This is consistent with the instructor's stated objectives, which was 1.3 percent above the average.

But in terms of student services, CSULB ranked above average in every area except financial aid, recreation programs and/or activities, and admissions.

"The results have been public for a long time before now, the failure to inform the right people, namely students, is an error by the administration" Associated Students President Suzy Aramesh said. "Students have a right to know the results of this survey 100 percent, absolutely."

Because of the time it took to decipher and understand all the information within the survey, most people at the presentation had no real reaction other than they were disappointed in the results, Aramesh said.

The RPP task force is the CSULB budgeting committee. They are comprised of faculty, staff, administration, and students at CSULB. RPP allocates money for campus divisions and departments.

RPP, in the past, has asked each department at a hearing about their plans for absorbing budget reductions. This year, RPP is asking departments how they plan to accommodate the main issues brought up from the SNAPS survey and the six-strategic planning priorities.

RPP will then use this information to forward recommendations to President Robert Maxson for next year's budget.

It will take RPP a couple of weeks before they present CSULB President Robert Maxson and his cabinet a formal draft of the survey and their recommendations.

"The departments have recognized they could improve their services," Associate Vice-President for Information Management and Analysis Ron Lee said. "There was a lot of data in this survey and it's helping us focus on how we can better serve the students here at CSULB.