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CU-Boulder 1998 Community Survey

Methods

Population and Sample: The survey population consisted of all full-time fall 1998 undergraduates who had a Colorado mailing address and weren’t foreign students. A total of 468 students, including between 66 and 93 students from each of the five standard racial/ethnic groups on campus and students whose ethnicity is listed as "unknown" in administrative records, were selected to participate as part of a stratified random sample. (See table below for exact numbers.) The percentage of each group represented by the sample ranged from less than 1% for white students to 60% for Native American students.

Contact Method: Questionnaires were mailed to the sample members four weeks into the fall 1998 term. A $2 bill was enclosed with each survey to encourage responses. Multiple follow-ups were used, including e-mail, postcard reminders, and remailing surveys, to encourage as many sample members as possible to complete and return the questionnaire. In additional, staff members from the Cultural Unity Student Center assisted in follow-up by calling survey recipients to encourage them to return their surveys.

Response Rates: Over all groups, 54% of the sample returned written questionnaires. The table below shows the total number of respondents and the total response rate for each group. The 54% response rate is lower than the total response rate of 63% in the 1994 administration of the survey; however, that rate included responses from brief telephone interviews, which were not attempted in 1998. The 1998 response rate is actually slightly higher than the 48% response rate for the 1994 written questionnaire only.

 

	1998 Community Survey			1994 Community Survey
	# of surveys mailed	# of respondents	Response rate	# of surveys mailed	# of respondents	Response rate
Asian	76	43	57%	143	76	53%
Black	93	43	46%	182	67	37%
Hispanic	74	36	49%	137	70	51%
Native American	83	46	55%	86	37	43%
Unknown	76	46	61%	0	0	n/a
White	66	37	56%	137	77	56%
Total	468	251	54%	685	327	48%

Changes over time: When the Community Survey was administered in 1994, a larger initial sample was selected. It was felt that a smaller sample in 1998 would yield equally valid results, especially if the response rates could be increased. As noted above, the 1998 response rate is somewhat higher than the 1994 response rate to the written questionnaire. Thus, although the sample sizes are smaller, we can be more certain that conclusions for all groups, except perhaps Native Americans, are accurate.

The 1998 Campus Community Survey was updated from the 1994 Campus Community Survey, which in turn was based on the "Perspectives on Diversity" survey administered to CU-Boulder undergraduates in spring 1990. As much as possible was retained from the 1994 survey, in order to provide direct comparability between 1994 and 1998 responses. However, some items were changed slightly, usually to provide closed-ended response formats that are more easily scored and interpreted.

The contents of the 1994 Community Survey were thoroughly reviewed before the 1998 version was finalized. As a result of this review and consultation with Ofelia Miramontes, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, and her staff, we identified the following areas of focus for this year’s administration.

• The extent to which undergraduates feel welcome - as if they belong - at CU-Boulder
• Services and experiences that are satisfying to undergraduates and those that are not
• The degree to which students feel that they are singled out or contacted too much as a consequence of their racial/ethnic identity
• Whether and how students’ feelings of belonging and satisfaction vary with their race/ethnicity
• The extent and types of racial/ethnic stereotyping occurring at CU-Boulder
• Things that foster and things that discourage interactions among students from different racial/ethnic groups
• Students’ suggestions for improving the campus climate for undergraduates
• The viability of new, federally-mandated reporting guidelines for race and ethnicity, the new guidelines’ correspondence with the previous classification system, and students’ comfort with the new guidelines.

To see a copy of the questionnaire, click here.

Table of Contents for 1998 Community Survey

jo - l:\ir\survey\comm\cm98\report\sectn2.doc
hm - last updated 5/17/2000

Last revision 07/23/02