We try to red flag and triage issues as fast as we can, usually starting with an email to your UMKC account.
Our first round of follow-up is to check in with students who reported the fear/challenge of having access to basic resources like food or housing. Here are some resources for each of the areas mentioned in the survey:
Comparing spring 2022 to spring 2021: Classes, Friendships/Social Life, and Multicultural Inclusion and Representation on Campus are three areas that show a significant increase in the number of students reporting those areas as going well. Fewer students are reporting Mental Health/Motivation as going well, though also fewer students are reporting that area as a challenge.
Some of the other items that were marked as a challenge were campus Wi-Fi connectivity, parking, and local/global concerns.
“Price inflation on everything, pending WWIII...Knowing and coping with world events needs to be addressed somehow.”
Class quality rating is level to where it was in the fall and up from spring 2021. Advising quality rating went up in the fall, but has gone back to about the same level as spring 2021.
Based on some of the comments, many love being back on campus and having more in-person classes. There are some students for whom online courses are still the best decision, too, but it can feel hard to connect to campus resources.
We directly contacted students who reported feeling low levels of support. If you ever need support, but don't know who to ask, please reach out. This could be to an instructor or advisor you trust, to one of the resource offices listed above, or sending us an email at thecollege@umkc.edu.
43 faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences were named as giving excellent support and demonstrating care for our students. There are over 100 kudos to send to faculty and staff across campus along with general kudos.
“This is a great encouragement and reminder for me to do my job better and to help students when they are in need of help as best as I can.”
We continue to hear from students that you are balancing a number of responsibilities on top of coursework. Being an adult learner, family responsibilities, student athlete, grieving, financially independent, grad/professional school preparation were some of the other responsibilities/ongoing concerns mentioned.
“It doesn't feel like there's enough hours in the day for me to work and go to class and then go to the library to understand what's going on in my classes and on top of that try to balance taking care of my mental health, spending time with friends and family, running errands...”
Thank you all for sharing about what is working well and what could be better for you to be able to more completely enrich your experience at UMKC. We look forward to continuing to strive toward supporting you more and better.
We will be rethinking the student survey project for the new School of Humanities and Social Sciences. If you have any thoughts or questions about this project, please reach out to Alicen Lundberg, Senior Coordinator for Academic and Student Programs.