Survey captures student opinion of UA leadership

Graphic by Ted Boyer

By Grant Morgan, Managing Editor
March 14, 2016

Just over 56 percent of undergraduate students say they have no confidence in UA President Scott Scarborough, a survey released last week by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) shows.

The survey, which was anonymous and included both multiple choice and open-ended questions, garnered responses from 2,893 of UA’s 19,454 undergraduate students, with a margin of error of 1.68 percentage points, according to USG.

USG emailed it on Feb. 15, following the Faculty Senate’s Feb. 4 vote of no-confidence in Scarborough.

Among other statistics, the undergraduate survey showed:

  • 62.5 percent think the University has declined overall since last year.
  • 55.16 percent are worried about the reputation of their “degree granting institution.”
  • 59.58 percent said they would choose UA if they were choosing a university.
  • 60.15 percent believe that university employees are as responsive to concerns as they were a year ago.

To protect student anonymity, responses to open-ended survey questions are not being released to the public. Otherwise, results can be viewed here: goo.gl/LpcOSo.

USG plans on releasing a public statement regarding the survey’s findings this Thursday, but has deferred any possible action as a result of the survey to next fall’s student government and its future vote on whether to hold a campus-wide referendum.

“We’re speculating there’s going to be some major announcements, major changes, this summer,” said Ricky Angeletti, USG’s vice president, at last week’s meeting. “We want to [put] a tool in next year’s [USG] leadership’s toolbox [so they] can respond appropriately.”

Though any official USG vote of approval or disapproval in UA leadership would only come during fall 2016, USG President Taylor Swift and senator Cassaundra Spaeder hold seats on UA’s Faculty Senate – and both voted no-confidence in Scarborough on Feb. 4.

Scarborough will be speaking at USG’s senate meeting on April 7, which is from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Student Union room 316, and open to the public.

Logan Lane contributed reporting to this article.