By Eliza Macdonald

Writer

Bucknell Student Government’s Committee for Student Engagement (CSE) released an online survey Monday, April 18 at midnight in the hopes of revealing students’ opinions and thoughts on various aspects of the University in order to serve students better.

The short survey of 14 questions is open-ended with dialogue boxes for students to fill in their own answers to the questions.

“[We] want to hear exactly what students have to say—we don’t want to cookie-cutter their answers,” Mike McGowan ’12 said.

The committee itself is ad hoc at the moment but is hoping to become a permanent part of BSG. It is currently made up of BSG members and other students, but these include student athletes, club presidents, Residential College members and students representing each class year.

“[This is the] first time BSG has ever asked these types of questions in a campus-wide survey. We’re making a huge push for students to respond because that’s what dictates where our committee goes and what issues we need to deal with first,” said Phil Kim ’12, President of BSG and chair of the CSE committee.

The survey asks for opinions on all aspects of student life: residential, academic and social. It also asks questions about how available students find resources on campus and allows space for writing about specific personal experiences.

The CSE reached out to many different administrators and faculty about the survey to get feedback on the questions and structure. The CSE also used the National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE) as a platform for what they should explore and which ideas they wanted to look into.

“I hope that a lot students will respond and care about BSG wanting to make a difference, and we’re really just trying to reach out more as a student government,” BSG representative Caroline Coady ’12 said.

The committee’s biggest intention with the survey is to get the point across that the BSG needs thorough student feedback to most effectively serve the students.

Advertisements went up Tuesday morning and can be seen along with sidewalk chalk all over campus. BSG also hopes to spread the word through RAs, class presidents, table tents and the Message Center.

“[I’m on CSE] in hopes that I would better server the student body in a way that would unify student concern and bring about effect changes,” Rob McFeeters ’11 said.

The survey, available on myBucknell, will stay up until the last day of classes, May 3.