A job satisfaction survey will be given to pre-tenure, tenured and full-time instructional faculty members who have been working at Syracuse University for at least a year.

“Institutions generally have a very high response rate, so we’re looking forward to good participation from our faculty,” said members of the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education implementation team at SU in an email.

The team includes Libby Barlow, assistant vice president of the office of institutional research and assessment, Jeff Stanton, interim dean at the School of Information Studies and Keith Alford, an associate professor at the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. The survey was created and will be administered by the COACHE, which operates out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

SU faculty members have already received emails with a link to the online survey.

The survey is national, meaning that other universities like Tufts University, Dartmouth College and Tulane University, will also be participating. The results from SU will be compared to the faculty responses at those other universities, according to a Feb. 16 SU news release.

The survey aims to evaluate responses in more than a dozen areas that include the nature of faculty work, resources and support, interdisciplinary work, tenure and promotion, institutional governance and leadership, work and personal life balance and more, according to the COACHE website.

Once the data is collected, COACHE will analyze the data and send the university a written report during the summer. The report will also include how SU faculty member responses compare to faculty at other institutions when asked the same questions.

“This benchmarking helps us understand what we are doing really well, and where we have room for improvement,” the COACHE implementation team said.

By agreeing to participate in the survey, SU is guaranteed a three-year membership with COACHE. During the first year of membership, which is this year for SU, a survey is administered. In the following years, COACHE will provide support and subsequent activities based on the results of the survey, the COACHE implementation team said.

“These activities ensure we consider the results deeply and act on them,” the COACHE team said. “They give us the resources to do it.”

The results from the survey will also be used in Fast Forward’s Academic Strategic Plan, which is a comprehensive plan for university improvement. Although the survey is not an official part of Fast Forward’s plan, the timing of the survey allows the results to be utilized by the provost, the COACHE team said.

The COACHE team added that by allowing the results of the survey to be used in the Academic Strategic Plan, the lives of faculty would be supported and enhanced.

“There is always room for improvement,” the team members said. “The results of this survey will focus our efforts in the right places.”

Published on February 24, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu