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CU-Boulder 1998 Community Survey

Overall Experiences at UCB

In order to summarize students' overall experiences, we created the following three scales, or composites of items:

• Situation for you consists of all 25 comfort items, all 8 positive feelings, all 6 negative feelings (reversed), rating UCB as a place for you, and recommending UCB to a friend. We also looked at a subset of these items, consisting of the 25 comfort items plus financial worries.
• Situation for your group consists of three items: the relative treatment of your group on campus and in Boulder, and UCB as a place for students in your group.
• Situation for you as a member of your group consists of three items: the relative treatment you experience as a member of your group both on campus and in Boulder, and UCB as a place for you as a group member.

The average outcomes are summarized in the display, where "low and "high" mark the lowest and highest possible scores for each scale. Note that the "situation for your group" and "situation for you as a member of your group" scales use items in which respondents compare their group's situation to that of others, whereas the "situation for you" scale simply asks about respondents' personal reactions and not about comparisons. (Click here to learn why these scales use different responses.)

Note: For graph display, A=Asian-American, B=Black/African Amer, H=Hispanic, N=Native American, W=White

In general, students in every group are positive about the situation for themselves personally. African Americans are less positive than every other group about the situation for themselves personally, for their group, and for themselves as group members. Asian-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans are less positive than whites but more positive than African Americans about the situation for their group and for themselves as group members. To see results in tabular form, click here. (table 4-I)

Overt prejudice and discrimination: Respondents were asked how often they encountered overt prejudice and discrimination from members of the CU-Boulder and city of Boulder communities. It is encouraging that, overall, students do not report experiencing much overt prejudice. However, African American students are markedly more likely to report a great deal of personal experience with discrimination, especially in the Boulder community and from CU-Boulder students. Though Asian-American, Hispanic, and Native American students report experiencing less overt prejudice and discrimination, they too report that such experiences are most likely to occur in contact with the general Boulder community and with CU-Boulder students. For all four groups of color, the frequency of overt discrimination by CU-Boulder staff, administrators, and faculty is much lower than that by students and Boulder in general. As one might expect, white students report virtually no prejudice or discrimination. To see results in tabular form, click here. (table 4-II)

Students also rated the treatment they, their group, and they as group members receive on campus and in the Boulder community, relative to treatment of all other students. Again, African American students are much more likely to report that they and their group are treated worse than other students, particularly in the general Boulder community. Hispanic students also report worse treatment, especially for group members and more so in Boulder than on campus. Native Americans are the only group of color who report better treatment by the Boulder community than by the UCB community, and this is especially true when they rate their own treatment. To see results in tabular form, click here. (table 4-III)

Changes over time: Because the scales used in 1994 and in 1998 contain slightly different items (extra items were added to the 1998 survey), we analyzed changes over time using a scale constructed to contain only items in common between the two years. Also, in 1994 the survey did not include questions about "you as a member of your group," so we removed these items from the scale.

In general, respondents give substantially similar ratings of the situation for themselves across years. Though the numbers indicate that African American, Hispanic, and white students' ratings have declined slightly, the differences are not statistically significant. For "situation for you," Native American students report slight but significant increases since 1994. It appears that students' experiences at CU-Boulder have held steady over the past four years. To see results in tabular form, click here. (table 4-IV)

In order to examine these results more closely, we broke down the "situation for you" scale into four subscales: one to capture students' reports of comfort on the CU-Boulder campus, one to capture their comfort in the Boulder community, one that combined positive and negative feelings about the UCB experience (scored so that higher numbers are more positive), and one that included the two general evaluation items, recommending UCB to a friend and rating UCB as a place for the respondent.

For almost every racial/ethnic group, responses to the subscales correspond to responses to the overall "situation for you" scale. For example, Asian-American students report improved comfort on campus and in Boulder, improved feelings, and a higher overall evaluation of CU-Boulder, and these increases are reflected in their higher ratings on the "situation for you" scale. African Americans, Hispanics, and whites, on the other hand, give consistently lower (or equal) ratings on all subscales. The one exception is Native American students, who report feeling more comfortable on the UCB campus, more comfortable in Boulder, and more positive in their feelings at UCB. However, these students' overall rating of CU-Boulder is much lower in 1998 than in 1994, and thus the increase in their "situation for you" ratings, while significant, is quite small.

Of all the differences that appear, however, it should be noted that there are only two that reach statistical significance: Native American and white students give significantly lower ratings in 1998 than in 1994 on the general UCB evaluation subscale. To see results in tabular form, click here. (table 4-V)

We also examined a subset of the full "situation for you" scale, looking only at the comfort items and the single item involving financial worries. This analysis was conducted in 1994 and results are compared here. Though some differences look quite large, none are statistically significant. However, it should be noted that while Asian-American, Hispanic and Native American students report fewer worries about their financial situation in 1998, black students are reporting more worries. To see results in tabular form, click here. (table 4-VI)

Table of Contents for 1998 Community Survey

jo - l:\ir\survey\comm\cm98\report\sectn4.doc
hm - last updated 5/17/2000

Last revision 07/23/02