Gianna Hayes
News Editor
Hannah Venzon
Contributing Writer
From Oct. 13 to Oct. 17, copy and section editors for The Wooster Voice tabled in Lowry Student Center for their biannual survey to collect students’ opinions on various departments across campus.
Results from last year can be viewed on the Voice’s website.
The Voice staff, directed by News Editor Gianna Hayes ’26, Managing Editor Kiera McGuire ’27 and Editors-in-Chief Nemsie Gonzalez ’26 and Wyn Caudle ’27, tabled during lunch and dinner hours to sample a wide range of student opinions on 26 different departments and five Wooster-specific programs.
This year, The Office of Sustainability was added based on recommendations from students expressed in past surveys. The next approval ratings survey held in the spring 2026 will reflect the name change of Sexuality and Gender Inclusion (SGI) to Equity and Belonging.
Students were given a one-page, double-sided paper survey to fill out. Survey participants were asked to indicate their class year, gender identity, race and ethnicity. The survey then asked students to rate departments, offices and programs across campus as strongly disapprove, disapprove, neutral, approve, strongly approve or no response. There was also a space where students could provide comments on the back of the survey.
The survey presented students with a QR code linked to a document that provided one to two sentences about each department listed on the sheet. The Voice staff copy-edited these descriptions for accuracy and fact-checked them based on the descriptions listed on each department’s Inside Wooster site.
The Voice tabulated approval ratings and 63 handwritten responses from the 219 total surveys returned. The class that had the highest participation in the survey was the class of 2026 at 35.9%, closely followed by the class of 2027 at 30.4%, trailed by the class of 2028 at 25.5% and the class of 2029 accounted for the lowest participation at 8.2%.
Hispanic and Latino participants came in at 6.7%. The largest race reported by participants was White, at 72.9%. Asian participants were the next highest, at 11.1%, followed by students who identified as two or more races at 8%. Black and African American students came in at 7.5%, followed by American Indian and Alaskan Native students accounting for 0.5% of responses. No student respondents reported their race as North African or Middle Eastern. This is relatively similar to the spring 2025 approval ratings, though there are notable decreases in the Hispanic and Latino respondents (-3%) and North African or Middle Eastern respondents (-1.5%), as well as increases among Black or African American respondents (+2.3%) and students who reported two or more races (+1.7%).
Participation among female students decreased this year, accounting for 43.1% of responses as opposed to last year’s 50.7%. Respondents who identified as male accounted for 38.4% of responses, 14.2% of respondents identified as nonbinary, 3.3% reported two or more genders and 0.9% reported their gender as “other,” with the opportunity to write in their self-described gender.
Five departments or offices across campus scored a 70% approval rating or higher — which combines the “approve” and “strongly approve” responses. These departments were Academic Planning and Experiential Learning (APEX, 77%), The Wooster Voice (80%), Faculty (90%), Libraries (93%) and The Writing Center (82%). Two academic programs also scored a 70% approval rating or higher, which were Independent Study (I.S., 79%) and Study Abroad/TREK Programs (74%). This remains consistent with the spring 2025 Approval Ratings, but Study Abroad/TREK Programs saw a 16.6% jump in approval this semester.
Five departments or offices across campus scored between 50 and 69% in combined approval ratings. These included The Global Engagement Office (GEO, 55%), MacLeod’s C-store (65%), Sexuality and Gender Inclusion (SGI, 66%), The College of Wooster (64%) and Student Engagement (62%). Two student programs — First Year Seminar (FYS, 69%) and Pathways (54%) — also had a combined approval rating in this range. SGI, Student Engagement, The College of Wooster and FYS remain relatively consistent, while GEO and the Pathways program have seen increases in approvals this semester.
Two departments — Multicultural Student Association (MSA) (52%) and International Student Services (ISS) (65%) — had majority neutral or no response.
Across campus, four departments or offices received a 30% or higher combined disapproval rating. These were Longbrake Student Wellness Center (40%), Lowry Dining Hall (50%), the Office of the President (56%) and Campus Safety (32%). One student program was among these as well — Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL), at 41% overall disapproval.
For some departments, offices and programs, there were no clear majority responses. Among these were Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL), Knowlton Science Café, Old Main Café, Scot Council, Residential Life, Dean of Students, Financial Aid and Athletics.
Over 60 students left comments on the back of their surveys, covering a range of concerns or praise for various departments, offices or programs on the survey.
One student commented that “Caring faculty + staff are the lifeblood of this institution, and should be better supported by administration.”
In each of the 21 written comments mentioning one or both campus cafés by name, students noted the change in operating hours as a negative development. One student said, “I preferred when Knowlton and Old Main were open until 4pm.”
Similarly, one respondent said, “I REALLY hate the changes to the hours of Wellness, same for Knowlton/Old Main (but I care less about that — wellness is a real problem).”
Written comments from 16 respondents also addressed recent changes in the Longbrake Wellness Center, with one noting “Lessening of hrs for many places such as dining (knowlton & c store), & wellness I understand is due to staff availability but makes services less accessible.” Another respondent said, “Wellness and Student Engagement have good people working there, but they both need more funding, resources, and staff.” Some comments focused on the costs of wellness that students face. “Longbreak is charging more for stuff,” said one respondent.
“I am very disappointed with the way RSL has handled the removal of Rev. Erin Guzmán and finding a replacement”, said one respondent in one of 12 written comments that mentioned the former chaplain. Another said, “I really like what RSL stands for, but feel they’ve done great damage with instability of campus chaplains.”
10 written comments referenced the Office of the President by name. One respondent stated that President Anne McCall “needs to stop running away from hard questions — she also suffers from a lack of transparency.” Another noted, “I understand a lot of the decisions being made, but I wish they were better explained to the wider campus community.”
Thank you to the Voice staff for their help in tabling, and a special thanks to Sara Moore ’27, Wyn Caudle ’27, Scarlett Svoboda ’28, and Trent Patton ’26 for their help with data entry. Additionally, this work would not have been possible without the wonderful guidance of Hannah Venzon ’28, who assisted with graphical representation and advised best survey practices.
