Survey to track '97 freshmen

By Emily Nash, On-line Forty-Niner

April 20,1998

 

To better accommodate future students at Cal State Long Beach, Student Services will use a survey to track the freshman class of 1997 over the next six years, said Randy Zarn, director of Student Transition and Retention Services.

 

According to a report submitted by Zarn in a recent Associated Student Senate meeting, the Senate will monitor the average number of units students complete per semester.

 

---

The survey was given to 2,210 freshmen attending

Student Orientation, Advising and Registration in fall 1997.

---

Probation status and test scores will also be observed, so that the Senate may better understand what kinds of students stay in the programs at CSULB and what types tend to leave or drop out.

These students represent 85 percent of Results will tell type of student to get degree, type to drop out The survey was given to 2,210 freshmen attending Student Orientation, Advising and Registration in fall 1997. the freshman class, and were not asked to identify themselves in the survey.

 

However, they were asked questions such as: family income level, parents' education level, religious preference and ethnic background.

 

According to the results, 22 percent of all freshmen come from households with $20,000 a year or less in income.

 

"This 22 percent is going to be highly dependent on that part-time job or financial aid," Susan Mulvaney, director of testing and evaluation services, said at Wednesday's Senate meeting.

 

The Senate will conduct telephone interviews with students, who entered CSULB in fall 1997 and drop out, Mulvaney explained.

 

"Not every student [in the survey will be getting a bachelor's degree from CSULB," Mulvaney said. "But if a student drops out of our school, we want to know why."

 

According to the survey, 64 percent of the class is female.

 

Mulvaney thinks the high female ratio is responsible for the great number of freshmen who have identified themselves as liberal.

 

"Women tend to be more liberal," Mulvaney said. "It will be interesting to see if' after being educated at CSULB, the class becomes more or less liberal."

 

While 17 percent of the class saw themselves as conservative, 28 percent said they were liberal. The rest did not respond.

 

According to the report, Student Services plans to use the information for admission and recruitment strategies, but since it will take more than six years to follow through on the survey data, there is no word yet on whether CSULB recruitment policies are to be altered.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________