University of North texas

System Center Student Survey
Spring 2000

Summary

The System Center Student Survey was administered by course section, January 24-27, 2000, to all students enrolled in the University of North Texas System Center. The entire student enrollment was our population. Therefore, it was possible to receive more surveys than there were students enrolled at the System Center, using a unique headcount. In this case, 219 completed surveys were returned while the unique headcount was only approximately 200 at the time the survey was taken. The return rate was 88% of the approximately 250 surveys distributed. This summary groups questions by general area. Each question on the survey is listed in this report following this summary.

1. The Student Population.

• Classification. Our System Center students are classified as "Junior" (27%), "Senior" (36%), or "Graduate Student" (27%). The remaining 10% chose "Other" or "No Response."
  
• Demographics: Gender. "Female" students accounted for the majority of the enrollment with 58%, "Males" were 36%, and 6% did not respond. Ethnicity. The ethnic breakdown indicates a significant proportion of underrepresented populations. "African-Americans" (35%), "Hispanic/Latino-Americans" (9%) and "Asian-Americans" (2%) accounted for 46% of the enrollment. "White" was at 46% while "No Response" and "Other" completed the breakdown with 8% total. Age. Students in the age group 25-40 accounted for 37% of respondents, 22% were under age 24, 20% were over 40 years old. A large percentage, 21%, did not report their age. Citizenship. Not surprisingly, 87% are US citizens, 3% are international students while 10% did not respond to this question.
  
• Where they live. Students living within reasonable proximity of the System Center accounted for the majority of the students (62%) and lived in these areas: "City of Dallas" (32%), "Southern Dallas County" (24%) and "Ellis County" (7%). Additionally, 11% of the students live in "Tarrant County," 7% in "Northern Dallas County," and 11% reside in "Denton or McKinney counties."
  
• Where they work. Those working within reasonable proximity of the System Center accounted for (60%) of our students and worked in these areas: "City of Dallas" (49%), "Southern Dallas County" (8%) and "Ellis County" (3%). Other locations where students work are "Denton/McKinney counties" (10%), "Tarrant County" (9%), and "Northern Dallas County" (6%).
  
• Employment. Most students are employed "Full time," (62%), or "More Than Half Time," (13%) while 11% work "Less Than Half Time."
  
• Degrees. Nearly 2/3 of our students (64%) indicated they already have a degree. Of these, 29% said they have an "Associates" degree, 28% already have a "Bachelors" degree, 6% have completed a "Masters" degree and one person already has earned a "Doctorate," (0.5%)
  
• Majors: Department. The majors by department with the highest percentage are "Criminal Justice" (19%), "Teacher Ed & Administration" (9%), "Library Science" (9%), and "Business Administration" (9%). College/School. "School of Community Service" had the most majors with 33%, "College of Business Administration" accounted for 20%, followed by "College of Education" with 18% and "School of Library/Information Science" at 14%.
  
• Enrollment: Hours. Most of our students are taking one course, 3 hrs, (59%) at the System Center and many (39%) are taking two or more. A large percentage of the students, 43%, are also enrolled in UNT at Denton, of which 11% are taking 1-3 hours, 16% are taking 4-9 hours, and 13% taking 10-18 hours. Another 6% are enrolled at the various DCCCD schools. Courses. Overwhelming, 87% of students said they would take more courses if they were offered in their major. "Realistically" speaking, 31% could take 2 courses per semester. An additional 45% said they could "realistically" take 3 or 4 courses a semester. Transfers in. The percentage of students responding that they are transferring to UNT to take courses at the System Center was 20%. Of that, 11% are coming to the System Center from the DCCCD schools while 7% are transferring from other 4-year colleges/universities. Enrolled fall 1999. Only 26% were enrolled in another college/university for the fall 1999 semester. Of these, 15% listed UNT at the Denton as the place they were enrolled with the various DCCCD schools totaling 8%. 
  
1. The System Center.

• Main reasons for attending System Center. "Location" (36%) and "Availability of required courses" (34%) were the top two reasons for attending the System Center. (Seven students stated the course they needed was only offered at the System Center and not at the UNT Denton campus.) Next were, "Degree programs offered" (16%) and "Scheduling of Classes" (15%). Other reasons listed were "Reputation of UNT" (6%), "Quality of Facility" (1%) with "Small class sizes" and "Quality/Reputation of Professors" each getting one mention.

• Scheduling of courses. The preferred time for offering of courses at the System Center is "Evening" (78%) with "Saturdays" (41%) the closest second choice. "Mornings" (29%) and "Afternoons" (28%) during weekdays were preferred over "Weekends only" (22%) and "Sundays" (16%).

• System Center Library. Most, 64%, would use the library if it was open on "Saturdays," 59% would use the library if it was open on "Weekday evenings," 58% on "Sundays" and 45% would do so "During the day, Monday-Friday."

• Succeeding in studies at the System Center. "Offer more classes" was the most common response when asked about help needed to succeed in their studies. This referred degree specific and basic course offerings. Facilities came in next with "Bookstore on site" (10%), "Increased access to library" (8%), "Access to computer labs" (7%), and "Keeping facilities up to date" (2%). Receiving mention was "More information" related to degree plans, transferable credit hours, and description of web resources available with 5%.

• System Center staff. The System Center staff was rated quite favorably. 51% of respondents said the staff has been "Very Helpful," and 29% rated them as "Helpful." Only 5% rated them lower while 14% did not respond to this question.
  
• Registration session. Only 30% of the students enrolled at the System Center attended the registration session on January 6, 2000.

1. Getting the Word Out.

• Learning about the System Center. Most students learned about the System Center through news stories, "Newspaper articles" (17%), "Television news" (13%) and "Radio news" (9%). Many learned of it through "Friends or relatives" (15%) or "Students at UNT" (15%), and through paid-for advertising ("Newspaper ads" (18%) Posters" (10%) with "Flyers" and "Postcard mailings" totaling 14%). Senator West was mentioned by name related to news reports.

• What our students see, hear and read regularly. Newspapers. The "Dallas Morning News" is read by 67% of students enrolled at the System Center followed by 6% who read the "Ft Worth Star-Telegram." Locals and weeklies totaled 9%. Local Publications. National publications were listed in significant numbers under this question on "local" publications. The only locals receiving 5 or more responses were the "Dallas Observer" (3%) and "D" magazine (2%). Television. Among television stations, the local "ABC Affiliate" ranked highest with 45%, the "Fox Affiliate" with 37% was second, followed by the "NBC affiliate" (24%) and the "CBS affiliate" (21%). Cable channels totaled 31% but only ESPN (5%) was mentioned more than 10 times. Radio. The radio stations that received more than 10% mention in the responses were KKDA-FM (19%), KHKS-FM (15%), KOAI-FM (11%) and KDGE-FM (11%). Of the top 10 listed by percentage of responses, 7 were FM stations at the higher end of the dial, between 100.3 and 106.1 FM. The highest rated AM station, KRLD 1080, was ninth with 8%. KKDA-AM, the sister station to this survey’s top ranked KKDA-FM, received 5% and was fourth among AM stations.

• How the System Center should tell others. "Advertising" is the message being sent by students (36%). Of these, 25% suggested, specifically, "Television, radio and newspaper" advertising. Advertising/recruiting at the local "Community Schools and High Schools" garnered 9% of the responses. Along that line, "Through Counselors" received mention (1%). Advertising more in "UNT publications" (schedules, catalog, NT Daily) was mentioned by 6% and "Mailings and Flyers" received 5% mention. Other suggestions were to inform the community "Through Churches, businesses and professional organizations" which was stated by 3% of the respondents while "Internet" advertising was at 4%. Another 4% would rely on "Word of mouth" advertising.

• What our students would tell others about the System Center. "Location" is everything, according to the 38% who said that is what they would tell others about the convenience of the System Center. "A quality facility" was next with 19%, followed by "Small class sizes" with 6% and "Friendliness of Staff" with 5%.