Section 10: Institutional - Specific Questions

The twenty "local" questions in this section deal with Columbia 2010 goals and progress, employee satisfaction and development, and internal communication. These questions were developed by the Leadership Advisory Team to augment the 'standardized' questions in the IPS.

What is the survey data telling us?

Once again, the faculty and staff are very confident about providing academic programs that reflect advancing trends in arts and media and our students' satisfaction with their experiences at Columbia.

The respondents agree that the climate/energy of the College is conducive to achieving the College's mission and the goals of Columbia 2010; however, the inter-departmental collaboration that is necessary for us to become a truly student-centered institution is poor. The top leadership is doing a fair job in leading us to successfully accomplish the Columbia 2010 goals.

The progress we are making toward decreasing our heavy reliance on tuition revenue for College operations is progressing at an unsatisfactory level. On the other hand, the respondents recognize that the College has set fund-raising goals and has a plan for increasing alternative resource streams. Within this context, many faculty and staff stated that they do not know much about the fund-raising efforts. Moreover, a significant proportion of faculty and staff are not aware about the College's plan for meeting numerous resource needs of the continued enrollment growth (a similar response pattern was observed in Section 4).

About 45% of the respondents are satisfied with the opportunities for recognition and feel valued, and about 30% are dissatisfied with the opportunities. On this issue, the full-time faculty seems to be the least satisfied group. Conversely, respondents are satisfied with encouragements to be creative and innovative with their work. Over 50% of faculty and staff are satisfied with how their professional knowledge and results of their work are utilized in the College's decision-making process and other improvement efforts.

The lines of internal communication -- especially about the College's resource allocation and the decision-making process for major issues -- are viewed as poor. Less than 30% of the respondents are satisfied with the College's internal communication. In addition, the College lacks appropriate mechanisms to incorporate student feedback.

Recent marketing initiatives, coupled with a campus that makes all of us (including visitors) generally feel safe, are seen as increasing the College's reputation and visibility and help to attract a diverse student body. Nevertheless it is worth noting that 16% of the respondents indicate that they do not feel safe on campus.

Building a student center has been a long-held desire of the Columbia community, and actualizing this desire is strongly supported.

The following comments from survey respondents illustrate the range of perspectives on the institutional issues discussed in this section:

I have experienced a distinct lack of coordination and feedback between departments. There is a lot of knowledge going to waste because of it. More contact and cooperation could improve morale and collegiality and greatly improve the content offered to our students.

I feel out of the administrative information loop. The occasional email concerning college news is just not enough. As a part-time instructor, I don't feel my input is very welcome or valued. I appreciate the steps they have taken, especially the unionization of the part-time staff. That makes policies seem much more equitable

I feel that there is a giant disconnect between top administration and the rank and file faculty and staff. While I feel very positive and invested in my job and my department, and think that many others do too, I don't feel that top administration has any interest in, responsiveness to, or accountability to the people who form the backbone of the college and who strive to preserve and execute our mission everyday....

Data for this section

For further information, please contact: hwexler@colum.edu