Highlights from the Fancy Cornell Survey

PULSE, which is a clever acronym standing for something I can't remember off the top of my head, was completed by 46 percent of Cornell undergrads this spring (including yours truly). The survey included a range of questions about everything from campus life to personal beliefs.

The full results are available as a .pdf here. I've picked a few highlights.

Most of the results look pretty good for the administration.

How would you evaluate your entire educational experience at Cornell?

Excellent 42
Good 47
(that's 89%!)
Fair 10
Poor 1

But a few don't.

How often have you discussed your course selection plans with a faculty member?

Occasionally 44
Rarely or never 36
Often 16
Very often 4

Feeds back into the well-stated last paragraph of Professor Ross Brann's guest column from the beginning of the year:

Some of [we faculty] are apparently absent from our offices, unavailable or disinterested during orientation and registration when students are thinking about their courses of study. If we fail to advise our students in conversation about their programs and engage in reflection with them about their choice of courses how can we hope to succeed in conveying the significance and value of thinking and ideas? What are we doing here at Cornell?

The Greek image committee still has some work to do:

I enjoy what the Greek system contributes to Cornell University.

Strongly agree 20%
Agree 32%
Disagree 30%
Strongly disagree 18%

To be fair, this was a bizarre way to phrase the question, and people probably read it as: "Do you enjoy attending frat parties?" Only 27% of respondents were actually Greek, so the system has some non-Greek supporters. But still, a lot of negatives there.

Calling the Cornell Public Service Center?

Time spent participating in community service during the typical week this academic year:

None - 60%

And who said Cornell was easy?

How often have you felt overwhelmed by all you had to do?

Often 34%
Very often 27%

There are plenty of other interesting results, but I don't have the time to type more out. Cornell apparently chose not to release students' responses about politics, science, religion, etc.