Students' opinions shown in report

An 18-month effort toward the Vision of the Ideal College Environment Report, or VOICE report, will come to fruition within the next few weeks, said Augustin Ruta, IU Student Association chief of staff and co-leader of the VOICE report.

VOICE is a collection of student thought concerning the state of IU gathered through in-depth online surveys and select focus groups.

Five student committees led by student group leaders across campus created the questions, gathered the data and helped devise recommendations for the IU administration, Ruta explained.

Each committee focused on a different facet of IU life, including technology, student collaboration, intellectual curiosity, facilities and campus safety.

“We’re looking for the ideal state of IU in respect to these areas,” Ruta said. “So, the intellectual curiosity committee asks ‘How well does IU foster learning and enable students to explore their skills?’”

The survey was 224 questions long and launched in early April. It went to 75 percent of the student body and had a 14 percent response rate, said Jarad Winget, executive director of VOICE Report Steering Committee.

“That was actually beyond what we needed,” Winget said. “We passed the validity mark.”

The first VOICE report originally commissioned by IU President Michael McRobbie was released in 2008. Recommendations from this report led to Wi-Fi in the dorms, the technology center in the Indiana Memorial Union and the Kelley Living-Learning Center in McNutt Quad.

Ruta noted the report in 2008 was a major source of initiative ideas for many student organizations.

“There was lots of good information on how things can be run better,” Winget said.

He added that even groups like the Student Recreational Sports Center adapted their services to accommodate the recommendations.

Ruta made it clear the initiatives from the 2008 report were mostly ideas that university administrators were already considering.

In most cases, the University is looking for “actionable evidence” that students want change, he said.

“It confirms student input,” he added.

In 2011, IUSA decided to re-commission the report to see what had changed.  

The original report covered a broad spectrum of issues at IU, sweeping the entire community and encompassing as many facets of IU life as possible in its survey.

This time, Ruta and Winget decided they wanted to look into specifics.

“We wanted to drill down and focus on specific areas,” Winget said. “You get more bang for your buck where results and recommendations are concerned.”

Preliminary work on the second VOICE report began in early summer 2011. Now, the report is essentially complete, Ruta said. After being finalized and double-checked, it will be sent to the university administration for a preliminary overview.

Ruta said they weren’t looking for approval by the administration but rather wanted to show it to them as a matter of courtesy.

“They really want to see it,” Ruta said. “We told the provost one of our recommendations for academic advising ... they were very excited.”

The VOICE report does not implement changes, but IUSA plans to be “actively involved” in pursuing the recommendations, Ruta said.

The second VOICE report does not yet have a release date for student viewing, but Ruta said it is very close to being finished.

Upon release, the full report will be available for viewing on the IUSA website.

IUSA officials also plan to release excerpts via Twitter and send the report to students via email.

The 2008 report is available to all students via the Archives of Institutional Memory, which can be accessed online.

Easily found with a Google search, the 2008 report is 127 pages long, including appendices.

IUSA hopes to put the VOICE report on a five-year cycle so all student organizations and the university administrators have time to respond to what the report outlines.

“It is not meant to promote IUSA goals,” Ruta said.

Neither Winget or Ruta knew if other student governments attempted similar reports.

“The VOICE report differentiates by depth, methodology and scale,” he said. “Every student government seeks out student opinion, but I don’t think they do it on this scale.”