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“Overall, satisfaction is just above neutral,” said Columbia College University Senator Ramis Wadood about the results from 2015’s Quality of Life Survey at the University Senate’s plenary on Thursday. This statement came from a graph similar to the one shown to the senate in October, where 4 is neutral satisfaction, 7 is very satisfied, and 1 very dissatisfied.

Students had an overall satisfaction of 4.94. Academics and safety were the only categories over 4 (both in the range from 5-6), and fitness, funding, and availability of space were the only categories below 4 (in the 3-4 range). Participation in the survey increased, with almost 10,000 students finishing the survey.

Wadood presented this survey along with SEAS Graduate School Senator Emily Moore. Both are co-chairs of the Student Affairs Committee (SAC). Compared to the 2013 survey, overall satisfaction has improved, but, in some categories such as mental health, satisfaction went down. Satisfaction is highest among non-PhD grad students, lower among undergrads, and lowest among PhD-track grad students.

Disabled students, transgender students, and low-income students reported the lowest quality of life, and administrative access was among the areas students were least satisfied with.

Many disabled students noted in the survey the lack of accessibility around campus.

“For low-income students, we found that across the class bracket that low-income students were less satisfied than any other income bracket, particularly for upper class,” said Moore. “Based on the qualitative responses, we found that these students tend to get into these vicious cycles, where they assume because they are low-income, that they perceive that they will do worse, and they tend to put a lot of stress and pressure on themselves, and for that reason, they do tend to do worse.”

Transgender students reported they were more discriminated against and were less satisfied with mental health than other students.

While student satisfaction with administration increased in the 2015 survey, respondents said they wish they could get more face time with administrators.

Wadood announced a number of initiatives in response to concerns. First, subcommittees on financial insecurity and disabilities are being formed. Second, SAC is supporting the Lion Credit Union Initiative in order to help financial security. Finally, Columbia will be holding a speaker series. Executive Committee Chair said that PrezBo has already agreed to give a talk similar to the one he gave on affirmative action at the last senate meeting.

Wadood promised “school-specific recommendations” as the data is further examined. In response to a question about objective data, Moore said Columbia is the only university that does a survey like this. She added that the person who crunches the stats from the survey said he wanted to work with them before they send out the next survey so that they could get more objective results.

In terms of comparison with other schools, a senator mentioned the National Survey of Student Engagement. Another senator said that the survey should ask students what kind of professors they have (tenured vs. tenure track vs. graduate students).

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