All undergraduate Sam Houston State University students will have the opportunity to fill out a survey for the National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Students should expect to see the email in their inboxes today, and the survey will remain open for several weeks.
The NCHA is a comprehensive health survey that is put on by the American College Health Association. The purpose of this survey is to give an overall view of the health status of SHSU.
“We have information on alcohol use, sexual health and topics here and there,” Assistant Director of the Office of Health Promotion Megan Richardson said. “However, we don’t have the topics like mental health and nutrition. We don’t have everything all in one, so the goal of this survey is to give us baseline information on what the health status is, that way we can tailor our programs to where the needs are, allocate resources where they’re needed and then continue to evaluate over time to see if we’re being effective.”
The SHC hopes that the survey will give them more insight into the student’s opinions on campus health.
“Do most our students consider themselves healthy? Do they think they think that this is a healthy campus? Do they think that there is enough resources on campus for them to be healthy in general? And then what do they want to see,” Richardson said. “It’s really going to be great whenever we get the results back, because using that, now we know what to do going forward.”
Richardson spoke about how she wants students to know that the SHC truly cares about their comments and concerns about the way that they run their operation.
“I want [students] to know that we’re actually listening to them,” Richardson said. “We hear all the time that students have complaints about things that they’re not seeing on campus, or they don’t have the opportunity to give feedback. Well this is a direct thing that you can do and you’re going to see the results almost immediately.
Since it is a national survey, it will also give the SHC a unique opportunity to feel out where the university stands amongst not only our own student body, but other colleges and universities across the nation as well.
As an added incentive, students who complete the survey will be automatically entered into a drawing to win one of twenty $50 Starbucks gift cards.
The survey is completely confidential and is expected to take about 30 minutes to complete. It will remain open until March 8.