Survey shows WU students more involved in community service than peers

By Amanda Phipps
phippsa@mytjnow.com

Winthrop has made a good impression. 

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has shown 93 percent of freshmen students have a favorable image of Winthrop. The survey showed 83 percent of seniors said they would attend Winthrop again, according to the Winthrop website. 

Small class sizes, accessibility to faculty, and the opportunity to do internships, work with faculty and gain leadership skills are some of the reasons students have a favorable image of the university, said Elizabeth Silagyi-Rebovich, director of assessment in the department of accreditation, accountability and academic services. 

“I think NSSE results reflect the perspectives of the students who respond to the survey,” Silagyi-Rebovich said. 

More Winthrop students said they would come to Winthrop again than the national number, 82%, Silagyi-Rebovich said. 

“Students’ decisions on where to attend college are informed by their academic and career goals, personal and social relationships and economic circumstances,” she said. 

Silagyi-Rebovich said the 2011 results are similar to results in the past. 

The survey also showed that 43 percent of students have participated in some form of internship experience. More students have participated in community service at Winthrop than peer institutions. 

Clemson scored higher than peer institutions on active and collaborative learning and student-faculty interaction, according the the Clemson NSSE Results Overview.

Silagyi-Rebovich said Winthrop’s focus on community service is to “provide personalized and challenging undergraduate, graduate and continuing professional education programs within a context dedicated to public service to the nation and to the State of South Carolina.” 

Students and faculty uphold Winthrop’s commitment to community service, Silagyi-Rebovich said. 

She said Winthrop’s NSSE responses, along with other successful programs, such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching-Elective Classification for Community Service, “demonstrate that Winthrop University is achieving its objectives to be and be recognized as a leader in community/public service and to integrate community/public service into its education experiences.”

The NSSE survey is funded by the schools that participate, who pay fees to cover the cost of administering the survey and analyzing the results, Silagyi-Rebovich said.

Winthrop uses student feedback to improve the Winthrop Experience, she said. Winthrop used the 2009 NSSE results to develop the Global Learning Initiative.