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UILFORDIAN
Greensboro, N.C.
Volume 92, Issue 15
www.guilfordian.com
February 3, 2006
Human Resources releases satisfaction survey results
Satisfaction high, but online-only methods questioned
Slavyan Stefanov
Staff Writer
Guilford announced the results of the
college's staff and faculty satisfaction sur
vey for the 2005-06 academic year.
The Group Management Questionnaire
(GMQ) - an anonymous, first-time
online survey according to
Guilford's Strategic Long-Range
Plan - assessed the satisfaction
with management and group
effectiveness of 130 faculty and
staff - about 25 percent of the
whole body.
The results show a 6.99 overall
satisfaction level on a 9-point scale
(1 being lowest), wuth the highest-
scoring categories being "Purpose
and Direction" and "Group
Climate," and the lowest being
"Reward, Appreciation, and
Recognition" and "Supervision."
Males are generally more satisfied
than females in all eight categories,
and Guilford is still short of the
target minimum of 7.5 in each cat
egory.
"This is what I call taking the
temperature of the college," said
President Kent Chabotar, who pro
posed the survey. "The surprising
thing about [the survey] was how
high the scores were."
As for the areas of concern, Guilford has
introduced two teaching and one staff
award this year. "People were also talking
about the need for people to say 'thank
you,' to be recognized for outstanding serv
ice, orally or with notes," said Chabotar.
To improve supervision, Guilford will
start a mandatory First-Year Experience
class for new employees instead of the cur
rent one-day orientation, as well as extra
training for faculty and staff in manage
ment positions. "In every area we need to
do better because we are not at our goal
yet," said Chabotar.
"I'm glad they are willing to get our
opinions in a survey and open the door to
discussing the issues further," said Sonya
Mitchell-Duffy Information Systems
Specialist with TT&S.
Unlike previous all-faculty-and-staff
surveys, the GMQ was done entirely online
and without cost, except for the
efforts of rr&S, which executed
the operation in late November
and early December of 2005.
"We have a pretty good return
rate for the first time. I think we
are going to have a better return
rate next time," said Chabotar.
The results showed that 27.6
percent of all faculty and staff
responded. However, the return
rate varied from 9 percent for all
administrative staff (8 respon
dents) to 66.7 percent for the
President's Office (14 respon
dents).
However, many faculty and
staff did not see the results, and a
significant number did not hear of
the survey to begin with, despite
Guilford sending personal e-mail
invitations in November and pub
lishing survey results and analy
sis in the Jan. 20 issue of The
Guilford Beacon.
Public terminals were available to, but not used by some staff. Continued on page 2
Campus Life works to improve student retention rate
Josh Cohen
Staff Writer
In 2002, the first-year class
began with 305 students. In 2006,
78 percent of them remain.
With an average retention rate
of 75 percent over the last 15
years, Guilford College is close to
foe mean retention rate for four-
year private institutions.
Guilford's administration, howev
er, wants to be better than aver
age.
Randy Doss, Vice President for
Enrollment and Campus Life,
devotes much of his time to stu
dent retention. "I'm constantly
poring over information on reten
tion. I try to figure out why we've
lost students in foe past and how
to keep students in foe future."
One of foe difficulties foe
school faces is figuring out what
kinds of students are leaving and
why. "There are no silver bullets,"
Doss explained. "Students leave
because of personal, medical or
psychological reasons - or foe
school asks them to leave for aca
demic or disciplinary reasons."
Guilford's strict academic sus
pension policy plays a big role in
foe loss of students for two rea
sons. Guilford chooses to suspend
first-year students and suspends
students for a full academic year,
two things most colleges don't do.
"I couldn't put my life on hold
for a year," said Nick Sands, for
mer Guilford student who was
suspended for academic reasons.
"I moved on. I'm not coming back
to Guilford."
Bill Woodward, Associate
Dean for Campus Life, plays an
Campus Life strives to improve student experiences at Guilford. Continued on page 3
Budget juggles salaries and tuition
Sevilla Trevisani
Managing Editor
This article concludes the coverage of
the Jan. 19 budget meeting, lohich
began in the previous issue of The
Guilfordian.
The Budget Committee met
this year to map out foe fiscal plan
needed to reach foe objectives set
by Kent Chabotar, President of
Guilford College. These objectives
were to continue capital projects,
raise CCE tuition, and, most
importantly, increase faculty and
staff salaries - all while balancing
foe budget.
The Budget Committee held an
open forum on Jan. 19 to answer
questions pertaining to foe 2006-
07 budget. Guilford plans to reach
foe 50th percentile of salaries
among members of foe American
Association of University
Professors (AAUP) by 2010; staff
salaries are projected to reach foe
45th percentile. This means an
Randy Doss
average increase of 6 percent for
faculty and 5.5 percent for staff
salaries.
The salary increase would
bring Guilford to foe "middle of
foe pack" in relation to compara
tive schools. Unlike past years,
there will not be a cost-of-living
adjustment.
The salary increases will be
Continued on page 2