Dissatisfaction With

Communication: 1

Dissatisfaction with

Student Communication

Amber Lawrence Rutgers University Camden

Abstract

This article examines how communication plays an important part in student satisfaction. The results also suggest that there is more than one form of communication that impacts student satisfaction. The findings show that email, text messaging, websites, and meetings are all forms of communication that need more development in order to satisfy the students’ needs. A focus group of Rutgers Camden students pointed out that the Rutgers school newspaper, The Gleaner, does not keep updated copies of the paper available for the students. Another target of concern was students becoming overwhelmed with their inboxes being flooded with spam from the school. Solutions to these issues could prove to be helpful to the Provost in her search to raise the rate of retention.

Introduction

Assessing and satisfying the needs of college students is not an easy task. Elliot and Healy (2001) believed that student satisfaction in these areas; student centeredness, campus climate, and instructional effectiveness, strongly influenced how satisfied they were with the overall educational experience. Measuring along eleven dimensions of student educational experience Elliot and Healy (2001) were able to asses which dimensions of education have the most impact on satisfaction. Elliot and Healy define satisfaction as a moment when performance meets or exceeds expectations. However, it is not an easy task to measure satisfaction, because as Babin and Griffin (1998) noted the scales for such a task lack face validity. Grossman (1999) found that satisfaction was highly influenced by trust. Universities could gain the trust of students by meeting their needs and dealing with their complaints in a more suitable manner. Communication: 2

Gaining the trust of students is gaining their loyalty because they know that the university will not let them down. These are the areas that Elliot and Healy looked at when evaluating student satisfaction, however these are not the only ways to look at student satisfaction.

In a recent focus group conducted at Rutgers with eight students there were some new issues of satisfaction brought to light. There seems to be an overwhelming dissatisfaction with how student functions are run and the notification about the event. Several students have shown the interest in a more informative website, just an example of how communication is a key factor in satisfaction. Giving the students more up to date information and the other tools of communication that they are looking for is one of the ways to increase satisfaction. It is just as Elliot and Healy (2001) said colleges need to place a greater emphasis on meeting the needs of students. This article will examine what some of those needs are, that colleges should be honing in on to increase student satisfaction. The results from this study were used to assess possible solutions to some of the communication problems for universities and in turn help improve retention.

Methods

The focus group was composed of eight Rutgers Camden undergraduate students. The students were collected by leaders from classes, and places across the campus. Throughout the week before the focus group the mediators worked to get commitments from students to attend and participate. Using food as leverage with the students seemed to work well, as the group ended up with eight students. The students were from different backgrounds, majors, and places, which is to be expected at commuter school. Of the students in attendance seven were commuters and one was a resident. Unfortunately, there was not a better representation of the residential student body in the focus group. There were a variety of different majors amongst the students in the group: Finance, Criminal Justice, Biological Engineering, Math, and Computer Graphic Design and Psychology, to name a few.

There were three mediators conducting the group, Amber Lawrence, Maria Berrett, and Ashli Williams. Each mediator had a responsibility, Amber’s was keeping the group on topic and Maria and Ashli had the role of observing the group and taking notes. During the course of an hour several questions were posed to the group and they discussed their feelings and opinions Communication: 3 on the matter. The group moved along at its own pace. When the mediators were not receiving much feedback on a specific topic, they would change to a new topic.

Included here is a list of the questions posed to the focus group:

1. How do you feel about online classes at Rutgers-Camden? 2. Do you feel as though they would fit better into your schedule? 3. Have you ever taken any online classes? 4. Would you be less likely to attend classes on campus if you had the option of online classes? 5. Do you feel it would be more of a convenience for you? Being able to manage both home life and school? 6. Do you have access to the internet in order to take an online class?

Campus Involvement: 1. What activities would you like to see on campus? 2. Are there currently any activities in which you are participating in? 3. Do you think there should be more student mixers on campus? 4. Do you attend any campus events? 5. Would you be more likely to become involved on campus if you were approached by a student? 6. How informed are you about campus activities? 7. What is the best way to notify students about campus activities? How far in advance? 8. What resources at school are you currently using? For example, the learning lab, the career center, health services, etc. 9. Does security play a role in your involvement on campus?

These are the questions that the students were asked to discuss. This paper will only examine three of the major issues that emerged in response to the questions touched upon in the focus group. Those three issues are registration, club meetings, and reaching students. Communication: 4

Findings

Registration

 Web registration slows down email and Sakai.

 Prevents students from handing in assignments and completing tasks on the Rutgers

server.

 If the system goes down there is no paper version to back it up, that the students have

access to.

 Students miss having a hard copy of class offerings.

 Some students take much longer than others to register.

 Students who need prerequisite overrides have problems registering. Communication: 5

Club Meetings:

 Students feel there is only so much time in the day.

 Meetings are only held one day a week.

 It always seems the meetings are held when the student is not on campus for that day or

during a time when they have class.

 Not enough notice about the meetings.

 Need a better way of informing students there is going to be a meeting.

 Need more clubs and meeting that are focused around student majors

 Being a commuter campus makes it difficult to find the best times for everyone. Communication: 6

Reaching Students:

 Email may not be the most effective way to reach the students.

 Students receive too much email from the school.

 Students consider most email from the school junk mail.

 Students do not read most of their emails from the school.

 Many students do not use Rutgers as their email address so they are not receiving

emails at all.

 Students think that our website needs to be updated.

 Students don’t feel like they are informed about the resources on campus.

 Students feel that Rutgers needs to find a better way of communicating upcoming

activities with students. Communication: 7

Results

Recommendations

During the focus group the students were also asked for possible solutions to the issues talked about in this paper. The students’ recommendations may be useful to the college Provost in her efforts to increase student retention at Rutgers University. Each recommendation is a student proposed solution to issues addressed during the focus group.

Students thought that a great way to handle the slow online registration process might be to set it up on a second server. Enabling another server will keep registration from slowing all of the other programs down and it will hopefully make it easier for students to register. Another suggestion was a limit on the amount of time that a student could spend on WebReg. By limiting the amount of time students have to register it will hopefully encourage them to be prepared with all their classes already picked out.

Students had a few recommendations for how Rutgers might approach the issue of club meetings. To give all students the same opportunity to attend club meetings, each club should hold two meetings. Both meetings would be held during the free period, and then the other stipulation is that one would be held during Monday, Wednesdays, Friday sessions and the other would be held on Tuesday, Thursday sessions. This will give students who are only at school on specific days a more opportunities to attend and become involved on campus.

Reaching the students is probably the most important recommendation that the group could give. One recommendation that came out of the focus group was to place upcoming events on the website and a tab for upcoming events under My Portal. This way all students are more likely to receive the information and it is not dependent on the student reading their email. Another suggestion that is worth considering for the good of the students is making the Resource Center, Career Center, and Health Services more accessible and known to the students. Do this by possibly putting a larger direct link on the home web page and one also on My Portal. Also by having teachers promote these university resources, hopefully more students will have the opportunity to take advantage of them. Communication: 8

References

Babin, Barry J. and Mitch Griffin. 1998. The Nature of Satisfaction: An Updated Examination and Analysis. The Journal of Business Research, 41:127-136.

Elliott, Kevin M. and Margaret A. Healy. 2001. Key Factors Influencing Student Satisfaction Related to Recruitment and Retention. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Vol. 10(4):1-11.

Grossman, Randi P. 1999. Relational Versus Discrete Exchanges: The Role of Trust and Commitment in Determining Customer Satisfaction. The Journal of Marketing Management, 9 (2): 47-58.