A recent survey has found that Binghamton University faculty rank favorably in terms of teaching success as well as feedback from students.

In 2014, the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) reached out to Binghamton University about their annual national faculty survey. This year’s survey included a section specific for STEM studies, and BU decided to participate in order to see how it compares with other schools.

The survey was distributed to every member of the faculty at BU. They were not required to respond, but 47 percent of the 930 faculty participated — 20 percent above the average response rate.

Focusing on faculty members’ happiness in the workplace, the survey asked hundreds of questions concerning the classroom environment, how the faculty feel about the students and administration, how involved students are and whether or not they believe they are being paid enough.

Executive Vice President and Provost for Academic Affairs Donald Nieman said that the survey looks at more than just how satisfied the faculty is with their work environment, but also the values that the faculty brings to their research in teaching and in service. He said this is valuable when comparing BU to other universities.

Due to fees, BU only requested their ranks amongst universities who were on similar national rankings in terms of acceptance, such as College of William and Mary, Ohio State University and University of Michigan.

“What we found was that in virtually every question there was no statistical difference between Binghamton faculty and faculty among fairly selective public universities, which is good,” Nieman said. “There were some areas where we were higher in statistically significant ways; mainly in areas of teaching. Binghamton faculty report that they are more engaged with students outside of class, and they placed a [higher] value on their teaching and exposing students to standards of writing and analysis than other faculty.”

Nasrin Fatima, the assistant provost for institutional research and effectiveness, said that the feedback helps administration know what to focus on in future plans for hiring faculty.

“The whole purpose of assessment is continuous improvement,” Fatima said. “Even though we are doing good, we want to do better, so from time to time we ask students for feedback and faculty for feedback, and we act on that feedback.”

Susan Strehle, vice provost and dean of the graduate school, said that the sense she got from the results was that faculty members were happy with their students’ ability to think critically and participate during class time.

“These days, people are encouraged to have polarized views, and I think that the fact that students are willing to challenge ideas and get to the real answers says something about our students,” Strehle said. “The professors seem to have an overwhelming respect for the students here.”

Strehle said that the feeling of respect is mutual, echoed in surveys that the school has done with students who are about to graduate.

“Students are talking about what they experienced as consumers,” Strehle said. “And by and large what the students say is that they do have really good mentoring and they do have really good teaching, which makes them feel like they’re ready for a profession.”

Fatima said that the survey’s favorable results will hopefully encourage more prospective students to look into the University.

“Students’ rankings is one of the most important things,” Fatima said. “If they see that faculty don’t care about students, they really won’t want to come here.”