Using Qualitative Data to Uphold Our Values
As the fiscal year winds to a close, Student Affairs departments compile all of our data from the past year so we're able to demonstrate how we support student well-being and success. While data allows us to paint a picture of the services we provided and for whom, if we focus too hard on the numbers, we lose out on the deeper story that each number represents.
Lists of numbers fall short when we try to draw connections between our programs and our Student Affairs values. Numbers alone can’t quite describe how a program made a student feel like they belong, how a staff member makes a student feel they care, or howwe approach program planning from a student-centered lens.
Gathering qualitative data to accompany the numbers ensures we tell the most compelling story about our student programs. This means pairing the what with the how. It involves a little more effort to collect and interpret qualitative data, but it’s worth it.
Evaluating the Education Navigator program
The Women's Resource Center (WRC) used qualitative data to evaluate the inaugural year of our new Education Navigation role and program. Thanks to a generous gift from the President’s Office, we were able to create an Education Navigator position, filled by Christine Contestable, which provides support to WRC scholars as they move along their academic path and encounter all of the experiences and processes that come with being a student.
The most obvious pieces of data to collect for the Education Navigation (EdNav) program included the number of WRC scholarship recipients, the number of meetings they requested with Contestable, and the most common issues for which they sought support. But what made these numbers more compelling was asking the scholars open-ended questions about their experiences with EdNav.
The results of our feedback survey have made it clear why the Education Navigator role and what it provides is so necessary to our scholars. We learned that the most common topics in EdNav meetings were finances and emotional support. Most importantly, we learned that our scholars were given the resources they needed with care, support, and empathy. Every survey respondent reported that they felt respected and felt their needs were heard. Moreover, after being in contact with the WRC via EdNav over the past year, 67% of the respondents reported strong agreement with the statement, “I feel like I have a support system at the University.” A vast majority of respondents (86%) agreed with the statement, “I feel like I belong to the University community.”
Surveying students for narrative-based data has helped us tell a more complete story of the positive impact this program has on our scholars. It also helps confirm that this program is aligned with the Student Affairs values of belonging, care, and being student-centered.