THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 7
School surveys may give biased job picture
ERICA STAAB
@EricaMStaab
A blurb on the School of Journalism's website says, "83 percent of 2013 journalism graduates were employed full-time six months after graduating"
What the website doesn't say is the figure is based on surveys completed by 38 percent of graduates, or 194 of 500 students were emailed the survey.
Other programs also reported graduate job rates in 2013 based on responses from less than half of their graduating classes.
For example, the School of Architecture, Design and Planning's survey results showed that 97 percent of graduates had jobs after graduation. However, the results were based on completed surveys from 12 percent of the graduating class, or 31 of the program's 264 graduates. The College of Liberal Arts and Science, the School of Social Welfare and the School of Music also had response rates below 50 percent.
Such limited survey responses can produce an incomplete or inaccurate picture of how easy it will be for students to get jobs in their field after graduation. Experts caution there could be "response bias," meaning students hired after graduation are more likely to fill out school surveys than those who are unemployed.
"Having skewed employment data is not a problem unique to KU," said Donna Ginther, a professor of economics, who has done research on college graduation surveys and employment. "Other universities tend to have the same problems."
The School of Business, the School of Education and the School of Engineering had the highest response rates to surveys last year. Business had
a 91 percent response rate. The school of Education had a 77 percent response rate and the school of Engineering reported an 87 percent response rate.
Some schools are particularly vigorous in making sure surveys are filled out.
The School of Business requires that students fill out an exit survey prior to receiving their graduation tickets, or at check-in for the graduation ceremony. This ensures that most of these graduates fill out the survey, said Alii Wellinghof, office manager of the Business Career Service Center at the Business School.
"It is important to get accurate survey results because then those results can be reported to potential employers and students," Wellinghof said.
The School of Engineering uses email surveys,but asks for what students are doing beyond just jobs.The survey reports include students attending graduate school,volunteering and other pursuits.
"Similar to students in other majors, some School of Engineering students choose to pursue graduate school, participate in volunteer service like the Peace Corps, etc., instead of pursuing post graduation employment," said Cathy Schwabauer, the school's career services director. "Therefore, we refer to overall 'connection rate' versus employment rate to include the students who have chosen other types of career paths than going directly into the workforce."
The School of Architecture relies on email surveys immediately after graduation, but is looking at ways to boost response rates, said Charles Linn, director of communications at the school. In explaining the school's 12 percent response rate, Linn said students don't realize the importance of providing feedback. He said the school
also needs current email addresses for graduates.
Even with a higher response rate, Linn said he would not emphasize too much on whether the survey results reflect the school's quality.
"But in general, I would be careful not to stake too much importance on these post graduation surveys," Linn said. "They are a snapshot of a brief moment in these peoples' careers. The majority of graduates are very young and still are exploring many choices concerning what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Whether they have a job the moment they graduated is not necessarily a measure of how we are doing as a school."
The journalism school also relies on email surveys to graduates, sending them out six months after graduation. Patty Noland, the school's career development coordinator, said the school used to make the surveys a graduation requirement and got very low results.
"Very few journalism students have jobs when they graduate," Noland said. "That's why we like to send them out months after graduation by email."
Noland called the 38 percent survey response, "pretty high as far as surveys go" and said the school provides the most data it can. Ginther called the 38 percent response "reasonable." "10 percent would be problematic, but ideally we would want 90 percent," Ginther said. "The higher the response rate, the better.
"But it's also a reality that getting responses to surveys is difficult in general. It's really hard to get people to reply to a survey," Ginther said. "We don't know about the people who don't respond, and that's the problem with data that comes from a survey."
Edited by Drew Parks
LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES 1,937 384 51%
SOCIAL WELFARE 286 78 74%
EDUCATION 304 234 84%
BUSINESS 547 500 63%
JOURNALISM 500 194 80%
ARCHITECTURE 264 31 97%
MUSIC 145 69 48%
ENGINEERING 338 294 *92%
*Includes all graduates not looking for jobs including those attending graduates graduate school.
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SHOW FROM PAGE 6
All proceeds collected from the $3 cover charge will go to the local Lawrence Social Service League. Weiss said this is Lawrence's oldest charity and dates back to 1863. "It serves a direct needs program and operates as a thrift store to downtown Lawrence," Weiss said.
Sne said the Social Service League helps women escaping abusive relationships, families in need of clothing
and shoes' for children and provides professional adult clothing for job interviews.
Edited by Emily Brown
THE CAUSE:
Same-sex marriage debate continues at Dole Institute
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RILEY MORTENSEN
@RileyMortensen
Call or text us today for an appointment at 785.371.6554 or visit www.socialperspective.org
Arguments for and against the legalization of same-sex marriage were the topics of debate at the Dole Institute of Politics and the KU Law School's 2014 Constitution Day Program on Tuesday.
Brown said it is clear to him that in a short amount of time same-sex marriage will be the law of the land. He also said attorney generals and prosecuting attorneys have a legal and ethical obligation to follow what the courts are saying, and that they must grant equal opportunities to be married to same sex couples.
of marriage helps protect that "The idea that marriage is to protect the rights to bear children or to raise children or to ensure parenthood, those arguments don't hold up in today's society," Brown said. "Many people get married without any thought of ever having children."
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Lawrence, KS 66044
"When an attorney general or a governor decides to expend the funds of a state to battle in a fight that is not winnable and is not constitutional and is discriminatory against its citizens, it is both the governor and that attorney general are violating their oaths of office and harming the citizens of their state," Brown said.
RILEY MORTENSEN/KANSAN
From left: Stephen McAllister, Thomas Fisher and David J. Brown discuss the debate over same-sex marriage at the Dole Institute of Politics' Constitution Day Program.
Barbara Ballard, associate director of the Dole Institute, said the event had been in the works since July. Recent Supreme Court rulings only gave the presenters that much more to discuss.
David Brown, an adjunct law professor at the University, argued that many people don't fall under the traditional "man marries woman" relationship and are now stepping forward to claim their rights, but Thomas Fisher, the solicitor general of Indiana, said the state's response has relied heavily on regulations based not only on text, but also on history and structure.
"From the state's point of view, that simply isn't there for purposes of same-sex marriage." Fisher said. "You just can't find the same historical roots for it that you
can for a traditional opposite sex marriage."
The only thing Brown and Fisher agreed on was that states defending same-sex marriage bans could have a hard road ahead.
Fisher said he is not optimistic about the state's chances if the Supreme Court finds its hand forced by the favorable rulings of state Supreme Courts and Circuit Courts.
"It's an unfortunate thing to have to plan for from my perspective as one who's defended these laws for so many years, but I think we've got to see the writing on the wall." Fisher said near the end of the debate.
Fisher said states have the right to regulate specifically on same-sex marriage. Fisher argued in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals this summer to keep Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage in place, but was denied by the Seventh Circuit, who the Supreme Court ruled in favor of on Oct. 6.
Fisher said that states should encourage children be raised by their biological parents, and that the traditional definition
of marriage helps protect that.
Edited by Jordan Fox
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Mary Banwart
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Refreshments will be provided
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO RSVP
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO RSV CONTACT THE DOLE INSTITUTE AT 864-4900 OR DOLEINSTITUTE@KU.EDU
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