Housing and Residence Life is distributing an annual survey to student residents starting Feb. 14 and ending Feb. 27.
According to Tara Hart, director of Housing and Residence Life, two iPads will be given away this year as of way of motivating students to participate in the survey.
"After the survey closes, a reception will be held for all residents. At that reception the prizes are awarded," Hart said. "There will be a random name generator function that selects the winners from those who have completed the survey."
According to Hart, all students who live in University owned housing, including Ora Manor and Turrell Manor, are given the opportunity to participate in the survey.
Hart said the survey results will help HRL learn how they can improve the services they provide current and future student residents.
"The survey is very important because it tells us how we are doing on our own campus and also benchmarks us against nearly 300 other colleges and universities which participate annually. Hart said. She added, "Data from students on their experience allows us to advocate for those resources most important to enhancing the learning outcomes associated with living on campus."
"Students are asked to answer open-ended questions about their satisfaction with staff, security, vending, laundry, dining and vendors such as cable, and the post office," Hart said.
"The advertising theme for this year's survey is ‘Show HRL Your Love' since the survey is starting on Valentine's Day," Hart said.
According to Hart, the survey will be distributed electronically to the Seton Hall e-mail of current residents. Once a student completes the survey, the system records it has been completed.
However, HRL cannot see the students' names linked to the responses, making it anonymous. The system will also send students a series of e-mail reminders to complete it.
There are currently 2125 resident students at Seton Hall. The response rate for 2009 – 2010 was 58 percent while back in 2007 – 2008, the response rate was 73 percent.
Hart said HRL hopes the survey rate rises because of this year's prizes.
Kimberly Bolognini can be reached at kimberly.bolognini@student.shu.edu.
