Young adults in undergraduate studies have the opportunity for their voices to be heard at Texas A&M and nationwide by participating in the student survey known as the Student Experience in the Research University, or SERU.
To improve  students’ undergraduate education, SERU provides evaluations based on student responses in the survey. According to their website, the responses are meant to provide information about all aspects of an undergraduate experience.
SERU was developed by the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, according to the SERU website. The Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness Alicia M. Dorsey said SERU began with the nine undergraduate campuses of the University of California system, but branched out since then for a broader spectrum of undergraduate students nationwide.
“These are large institutions that have both a commitment to a quality of education as well as a commitment to the discovery of new knowledge,” Dorsey said.    
The director of Student Life Studies Darby Roberts said A&M participated in  SERU from 2012 to 2015. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Evaluation found it more useful to begin releasing  SERU less frequent.
“Right now the plan is to do it every other year, so every odd year we will do the survey,” Roberts said.
Information found within the various topics are later provided to related departments and used to improve lacking portions of the related department.
“I’m hoping that a lot of  students participate and complete the whole survey so we have a good representation of the undergraduate student body,” Roberts said. “For academic programs, they can look at their specific major or particular program and they have enough responses in the students in that program so they can look at it holistically.”
The more information provided from the largest poll will present the most accurate depiction of the entire whole. Dorsey hopes this year will have the most diverse poll of information yet.
“We truly want to hear from all of our students,” Dorsey said. “Which means that those students who are international students, the students of color, the students from a variety of walks of life — we really want to use this as an opportunity to learn more about everyone’s experience on this campus.”
Dorsey said SERU members are motivated by the motto, “Every student has a voice and every voice is heard.”
“This survey is really a great opportunity for students to share with the institution what those experiences are like,” Dorsey said.  
The survey compiles information shared with more than 20 research universities who also participate in SERU in hopes of improving and understanding the undergraduate experience nationwide.
“University of Texas completes this,” Dorsey said. “One of the things we would love to see is Texas A&M students have a higher response rate than the University of Texas.”
The survey is estimated to take approximately 30 minutes.
To take the SERU, visit their website at http://seru.tamu.edu and log in with a NetID and password.