By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 27, 2013
This week, students will have the chance to lend their data to the National College Health Assessment.
“It’s an online survey examining students’ behaviours, perceptions and habits about a variety of health and wellness topics,” UFV VP students Jody Gordon explains.
The survey includes personal safety, “risky habits,” as well as alcohol and drug use, among other topics. For obvious reasons, the process lets students remain completely anonymous.
Whether or not students completed the survey is the only data UFV will receive that will be linked to individuals. This allows students who completed the survey to be entered in a prize draw, but students can also ask that their names be withheld completely.
“Even that information is purged three weeks after the survey is completed,” Gordon notes. “We can’t tie the students’ information to their responses.”
After completing the 60-question survey, students’ answers will be added together to show UFV administration what kind of issues the student body is dealing with and where UFV needs to improve services or counselling.
“The goal of the survey is to really help us learn more about our students around various health issues, so we can better serve them,” Gordon says.
This will guide the university in creating new programs where needed and supporting programs already in place.
This is the first year that Canadian universities have been involved in the survey, and UFV is one of 25 across the country participating this year. There is a sharing agreement in place between UFV and these other universities, allowing administration to compare UFV students to the student body at other universities.
The survey is run by the American College Health Association, which has been conducting the annual survey since 2000. The organization facilitates the survey at a cost of 43 cents per survey sent out.
Gordon estimates UFV will send out around 9500 surveys. She’s hoping that at least 30 per cent of the students who receive the survey will complete it.
All students who are currently enrolled in UFV programs will receive an email with a link to the survey in the next week or so, Gordon says. The link will be unique to each student, which will allow them to save the survey halfway through and continue it at a later time.
She also suspects that UFV will participate in the survey every three years – giving the university information about trends over time, and allowing administration to measure the effectiveness of services and other measures.
