Faculty responses to job satisfaction survey benefit Student Emergency Fund

April 23, 2024 (Volume 47, Number 17)
Article by Michele Coffill

Zumberge Hall with twilight blue sky in background

Photo Credit: Kendra Stanley-Mills

More than 65 percent of Grand Valley faculty members participated in the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Job Satisfaction survey, well above the average of other institutions in the same survey class.

Data from the survey will be reviewed and shared with Provost Fatma Mili and college deans, then disseminated to the campus community early in the fall semester with a plan to develop working teams to address areas to improve the faculty work experience.

Through a collaborative incentive with the Division of Inclusion and Equity, responses to the survey will benefit the GVSU Student Emergency Fund.

Ed Aboufadel, chair of the COACHE Steering Committee and senior associate vice president for Academic Affairs, said each survey response added $25 to the fund, which totals more than $15,500.

"I am pleased by the strong response rate of our faculty, and the work of the COACHE steering committee over the past year to roll out the survey," Aboufadel said. "After the findings are received, we will have a bias towards action with a shared governance approach."

Grand Valley's faculty response rate was 66 percent, much higher than the 41 percent average from the 300 other institutions also administering the COACH survey. A project from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, COACHE offers diagnostic reports and consultations to participating universities for the length of their three-year commitment.