Student Engineers’ Council presented the results of its 2014 Fall Survey on Tuesday. The survey aimed to gauge student opinion on current events within the Dwight Look College of Engineering. Questions focused on the 25 by 25 initiative, a plan to overhaul Texas A&M’s infrastructure and admissions to have 25,000 engineering students at A&M by 2025.
The survey showed that 30 percent of freshmen engineering students were still unaware of the 25 by 25 Initiative. Of the engineering student body that supports it, most were neutral with slight leaning toward approval. Most approving students believed it would be good for engineering and the college as a whole. Five percent were unsure whether they had heard of the initiative.
Of those that disagreed with 25 by 25, the most chosen response was that the policy had the potential to reduce the quality of their degree, or were concerned with a lack of infrastructure and faculty.
Over 5,000 students, or 40 percent percent of the engineering college’s population, responded to the survey.
Melinda McClure, Student Engineers’ Council president, said the SEC compiles the survey carefully in order to accurately gauge student opinion.
“It’s put together by our SEC legislation team,” McClure said. “They go through a pretty long process of creating the survey, creating the questions, verifying with administrators what questions we are going to ask. They also do test runs to make sure none of the questions are unfairly biased, or lead to any particular conclusions. So after it passes all of those test we put it on our online software and send it out to all of the students.”
David Yu, mechanical engineer junior and SEC legislation chair, said the SEC survey is actively viewed by the college’s administration.
“Many students don’t realize that the administration actually cares, and they want to improve the student’s education experience,” Yu said. “I also think it’s important to know this isn’t a random survey they take every semester, the results get presented to the deans and the administration and changes do take place.”
McClure said the survey has important effects on the college, and has been viewed by administrators as high up as Katherine Banks, dean of the College of Engineering.
“It’s really respected by the leaders of the college, they take time out of their days to hear about this and really follow up with what the students are saying,” McClure said. “I was in a meeting with Dr. Banks [dean of engineering] a couple days ago, and she was very receptive about what they are saying and pointed out ways the college of engineering could align their goals with those of the students and also meet the concerns of the students.”
Another section of the survey looked at ENG 111 and 112 — introductory engineering classes —attitudes towards the courses, and how the college could improve the courses. The survey showed that the overwhelming majority of students felt the courses helped them in deciding upon their major. The majority also responded that the information given in the courses during presentations was either helpful or very helpful.
In response to what engineering students wanted the college to do with the differential student fee, the overwhelming majority reported that they wanted the funds to go to additional professors, with the next two responses stating renovations or more lab equipment respectively.
The final portion of the survey looked at graduate students. The majority of graduate students, the survey showed, said they would be interested in presenting their research to companies and conferences were the preferred method, followed by poster or paper presentations.