Julia Garrison
News Editor
The Wooster Voice staff collected responses to their biannual survey the week before fall break. The survey allowed students to share feedback on departments across campus anonymously.
Over the week of Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, The Wooster Voice staff surveyed students for their biannual approval ratings survey. Voice staff tabled in Lowry Student Center during lunch and dinner hours to gauge a diverse student population’s opinions about the College, broken down into 25 different departments and five Wooster-specific programs.
Students completed the paper survey anonymously, checking boxes that correlated with their demographics and opinions about each department’s performance. There was also a space on the form for students to leave comments.
The Voice gathered approximately 320 responses to the survey. The class of 2025 had the highest participation in the survey accounting for 35.3% of the overall respondents, the class of 2026 providing 27.3% of responses, the class of 2027 26% and the class of 2028 only providing 11.4% of responses.
Participation by race stayed consistent from the Voice’s spring 2024 approval ratings survey; 73.7% of respondents identified as white, 7.5% as Black or African American, 7.5% as Asian, 1.4% as North African or Middle Eastern, 0.3% as American Indian or Alaska Native and 9.6% reported two or more races.
92.8% students reported that they are not of Hispanic or Latino origin, while 7.2% reported that they are.
For gender identity, 46.1% of respondents identified as female, 34.7% as male, 14.3% as nonbinary, 2.9% as two or more and 1.9% reported an “other” gender –– which they had space to write in.
The Voice noted three responses that were flagged as containing homophobic and transphobic content, with students reporting their gender as fictional characters in an attempt to skew the results of the Sexuality and Gender Inclusion office. Despite being flagged, these results were counted.
The Voice also flagged a comment for religious hate speech. The flagged comment described the inclusion of religions other than Christianity within the Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) office as “witchcraft devil stuff.”
A random sampling of 245 was taken from the 320 total responses. Results from the random sampling were tallied and shared with department leaders and directors. These staff and faculty members were given 10 days to respond with comments.
The survey included departments that did not appear on the spring 2024 survey, including the Global Engagement Office (GEO), Old Main Café, The College of Wooster libraries, The College of Wooster and the athletics department. This semester’s survey also featured five student programs: First Year Seminar (FYS), Independent Study (I.S.), Study Abroad, Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) and Pathways.
Seven departments and one student program garnered a 70% or higher approval rating, which includes their combined “approve” and “strongly approve” scores. These departments included Advising, Academic Planning and Experiential Learning (APEX), MacLeod’s C-Store, The Wooster Voice, Faculty, The College of Wooster, Wooster Libraries and The Writing Center. First-year seminar (FYS) was the lone student program represented in this group.
Several departments also had a total approval rating of 50% to 69% overall. These departments included Longbrake Student Wellness Center, SGI, Knowlton Science Café, student engagement and financial aid. Two programs — I.S. and study abroad — also made the list.
Some departments had a higher neutral rating, with six departments polling 50% or higher in neutrality. These departments included GEO, Multicultural Student Affairs, International Student Services, Scot Council, the Dean of Students and athletics. FSL and Pathways also both had higher than 50% for their neutrality rating, but respondents were instructed to mark neutrality if the program did not apply to them.
Departments with a 30% or higher disapproval rating included Lowry Dining Center, Old Main Café, the Office of the President and campus safety.
Old Main received a mixed review, garnering 30% overall disapproval, 36.6% neutral and 32.9% overall approval. The café received the second highest number of comments, coming in behind only the office of the President. Several comments called for campus dining and administrators to reinstate Boo Bears Brew in Old Main’s current location. Boo Bears Brew received one of the highest combined approval ratings in last semester’s survey, with a 77% overall approval score and a 3% disapproval rating.
“Old Main has effectively ruined everything that was good about Boo Bears in a ridiculous and obvious money grab,” one student wrote. Another student echoed this concern, writing that “[O]ld [M]ain completely removed any sort of community that Boo Bears built in Kauke.”
Besides Old Main, other dining centers across campus scored relatively similarly to last year. Lowry’s disapproval rating dropped from 53% to 45%, but students still voiced qualms with the food options in their responses.
“Lowry shouldn’t have outsourced [their labor]. I sometimes think it was better my freshman year (2021-2022), because while the options were limited, there were consistently good options,” one senior student explained. Additionally, students emphasized the need for a more robust selection of vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher and gluten-free options.
The Office of President’s approval rating doubled from 6% to 12.8%. The disapproval and neutral rating were tied at 43%, balancing out compared to last year’s 58% disapproval and 35% neutral rating.
“I think President McCall gets way too much hate,” one student — who ranked the Office of the President as ‘strongly approve’ — wrote. “The notion that the CoW President ‘must’ make [a statement about the Middle East] is deeply misguided, in my view.”
Another student demonstrated an alternative view, commenting that the administration should “[s]ay anything at all about the genocide and stop being a coward.”
One student hoped for “more transparency and that [McCall would be] more accessible/visible on campus.”
Students also shared their opinions about their time at Wooster –– along with how they would rank Wooster’s health as an institution. 70% of surveyees approved of the College overall, with 20% remaining neutral and 9% disapproving.
“I feel like so much of my tuition money is going to funding campus security over policing and harassing students, administration actively ignoring student calls for accessible + equitable change, and overall funding a ‘recruitment over retention’ mentality for the school,” one student said. “I’m happy with the time I have had here, but I legitimately do not know if I would make the same undergrad choice again.”
Campus safety’s approval rating rose by 10 percentage points –– from 28% last semester to 38% this semester. Some students in the comments relayed their concerns about the recent departure of officer Fred Todd. Students also voiced concern about the patrolling of Scheide Music Center in the evening hours and campus safety reportedly asking students inside to verify that they have swipe access to the building.
The Voice, also included on the survey, received a 79% approval rating, with an 18% neutral rating and a 2.4% disapproval rating.The Voice will conduct approval ratings again for the spring semester around the same time in 2025 following the same process laid out in this year’s approval ratings survey, with the possibility of the inclusion of both additional departments and programs where the staff sees fit.
