I received an e-mail from University of Waterloo President David Johnston two days ago, inviting me to complete the National Survey of Student Engagement. This survey has been administered in the U.S.A. for a while; I think this is the first time it's been administered in Canada.

You can look at the survey without filling in answers by going to the survey web site and entering "guest" as the Survey ID and password.

Here's the e-mail invitation I received from President Johnston:

Dear Jesse Helmer:

I am writing to invite you to participate in an important survey dealing with students' educational activities at the University of Waterloo (UW). This survey is administered to students at hundreds of American universities, and for the first time this year, at several Canadian universities, including UW. The results will allow us to analyze, in the aggregate, experiences you and other students at UW report with those of students at other universities throughout Canada and the US.

You are one of 2100 undergraduate students in your 1st year or your expected graduating year who have been randomly selected to tell us about your educational experiences at UW inside and outside the classroom, and to indicate what you are gaining and have gained from those experiences. By taking 15 minutes to complete the survey, you will help UW to provide an improved educational environment for you and for future UW students.

The survey is administered on the Web. Go to www.collegereport.org/canada and

• In the Survey ID box, please type: [snipped]
• In the Password box, please type: [snipped]

If you have any difficulty logging in, please e-mail help@collegereport.org or call 1-800-676-0390 for assistance. A reminder notice will be generated in a week to prompt students who plan to participate but have not yet had a chance to do so.

Participation in this survey is voluntary and information you provide will remain confidential. The data will be summarized ensuring that no individual can be identified. Furthermore, the Web site is programmed to collect responses on the questionnaire alone; no potentially identifying information (such as machine identifiers) is collected. You may decline answering any of the questions, and may withdraw at any time. The data will be kept for a minimum of 5 years at the University of Waterloo in a secure computing environment within Institutional Analysis & Planning.

I would like to assure you that this study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through the Office of Research Ethics. However, the final decision about participation is yours. If you have any comments or concerns resulting from your participation in this study, please feel free to contact Dr. Susan Sykes, Director, Office of Research Ethics, at 519-888-4567 ext. 6005 or by e-mail at ssykes@uwaterloo.ca.

If you would like more information about this survey, you can visit the National Survey of Student Engagement at www.iub.edu/~nsse, e-mail NSSE at info@collegereport.org, or call 812-856-5824. If you have questions about UW’s involvement in this project and how we intend to use the results, you can contact Mr. Bob Truman, Director of Institutional Analysis & Planning, at 519-888-4793, or at nsse@uwaterloo.ca. The survey results should be published by Fall 2004, and will be available at http://www.analysis.uwaterloo.ca.

I want to thank you personally for considering this request. The responses you and other students provide will identify areas where we can improve, and they will give us information that will lead to constructive changes at Waterloo. Thank you and best wishes.

Sincerely,

David Johnston

President and Vice-Chancellor

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