Every couple of years, Disability Services gathers feedback from faculty members to understand how they can best work with faculty to serve students. This year Disability Services and the Center for Teaching Excellence wanted to gather information to understand how faculty and staff may be incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in their work with students. This is the fourth time Student Life Studies has assisted Disability Services in conducting this type of assessment. The other times were in 2011, 2016, and 2018.

The Department of Recreation Sports worked with Student Counseling Service, Student Health Services, Residence Life, Health Promotion in the Offices of the Dean of Student Life, and Physical Education Activity Program (PEAP) to offer De-Stress Fest. This program was scheduled on May 1, 2019, which was the day before spring semester finals began. The come and go program is designed to teach students the importance of self-care and for students to participate in activities to lower stress.

Participants were assessed with a short pre-test as they came to the program and again with a short post-test as they left the program to gauge how well students learned about self-care and the effectiveness of the program.

One accommodation offered through Disability Services is peer notetaking for classes. As part of the accommodation, students can volunteer to serve as a peer note taker to take lecture notes and upload the notes on Google Drive for students approved for this accommodation.

Disability Services wanted to gather feedback from the volunteer students who take notes to make improvements to this accommodation service. Disability Services has worked with Student Life Studies before and has assessed the students who receive this accommodation previously; however, this was the first time to assess the student volunteers taking the notes.

Fish Camp, an optional four-day extended orientation camp, provides a transition from high school to college for about 6,500 incoming freshmen. Fish Camp has assessed different aspects of the program since 2000. Fish Camp wanted to assess the freshmen who did not attend Fish Camp to understand their first semester at Texas A&M and find out if there are things Fish Camp can do in their marketing and programming for more students to attend. This is the fifth time Fish Camp has specifically sought feedback from non-participants. The last time non-participants were assessed was in 2016.

Student Life Studies administered an electronic survey with students in the spring 2017 semester. The survey focused on skills students gained through their college experience and what specific experiences are contributing to those skills.

According to its website (http://studentlifestudies.tamu.edu/about), Student Life Studies “provides leadership in assessment and planning to the Division of Student Affairs and to student organizations, maximizing program effectiveness and emphasizing student learning.” One goal for Student Life Studies is to educate and develop staff within the Division of Student Affairs about assessment. To accomplish this goal, the department coordinates assessment training for division staff members. The department hosted an assessment training that was held in the afternoon on both December 18 and 19, 2018.

While Student Life Studies offers assessment training regularly, this specific one focused on training participants how to write quality survey questions, effectively develop a survey, and utilize Qualtrics to create their own survey. Student Life Studies staff developed the following learning outcomes for this training:

• Recognize good practice and tips in survey development.
• Compose a survey using at least three different questions types in a logical order.
• Design the survey accurately in Qualtrics.

Student Life Studies wanted to assess the effectiveness of the training and the intended learning outcomes. While Student Life Studies has assessed previous training workshops, this was the first time this training was done or assessed.

In fall of 2018, all First Time in College (FTIC) students were invited to complete a survey about their expectations, goals, and adjustment to college. This report addresses issues surrounding financial concerns and resources.

In fall of 2018, all First Time in College (FTIC) students were invited to complete a survey about their expectations, goals, and adjustment to college. This report examines how new students expect to allocate their time during their first year in college and manage their time and stress.