By Heather Zimar, Managing Editor, Journals and Publications, AACRAO
In the Summer 2026 issue of SEM Quarterly, Dr. Kimberley Buster-Williams, Associate Vice Provost for Student Success and Retention at The George Washington University, makes the case that a standardized student survey can be far more than a “pulse check”—it can serve as an “operational feedback mechanism” for strategic enrollment management. Challenging the tendency to continually redesign feedback instruments, she argues that a stable, repeated cross-sectional design is what makes comparable, year-over-year findings possible and allows consistently collected student voice data to be translated into actionable insight for SEM planning.
The article documents how one private four-year research university turned its annual Fall Check-In Survey into a repeated cross-sectional design, administered each October from 2022 to 2025. When leadership transitioned in 2023, the institution deliberately retained the existing instrument rather than redesign it—preserving item alignment and construct stability—and generated comparable, year-over-year cohort data with response rates of 55 to 66%, well above the roughly 30 percent typical of online surveys. Grounded in student-persistence frameworks such as Vincent Tinto’s model of institutional integration, Buster-Williams positions the design as a pragmatic form of institutional learning that supports a shift from reactive support models toward more predictive student success strategies.
Key findings and professional reflections from the article include:
- Stability Over Reinvention: Retaining a stable core instrument across administrations—rather than reinventing it each year—enables meaningful year-over-year comparison and reduces the risk of conflating measurement variation with true cohort-level change.
- Surveys as Early-Alert Tools: When responses were matched to later academic records, students who selected risk responses experienced probation rates three to six times higher than students who selected positive responses—evidence that survey items can surface early indicators while there is still time to intervene.
- Signs of Strengthening Commitment and Belonging: Across the four cohorts, the share of first-year students “definitely returning” rose from 84 to 88 percent; participation in student organizations grew from 47 to 74 percent; and positive course-registration experiences climbed from 41 to 56 percent.
- From Feedback to Action: Buster-Williams introduces a “Student Voice–to–SEM Action Loop” that moves through collecting student voice, identifying and validating risk signals, disseminating insights across units, implementing targeted interventions, and monitoring outcomes—embedding student input into SEM decision-making rather than treating it as an annual snapshot.
“In an era of volatility, institutions that discipline themselves to measure consistently—rather than endlessly—are best positioned to transform student voice into strategic action,” Buster-Williams wrote.
Other articles in the Summer 2026 SEMQ include:
Evaluating Machine Learning Techniques for Enrollment Prediction in Higher Education by Bo Klauth
A Student Perspective on Enrollment and Retention Success During the Pandemic: A Subsequent Study to the Perspective of Administration and Faculty by Jennifer B. Passenti and Luke D. Schultheis
Re-Evaluation Program Success: A New Model for Nontraditional Program Assessment by James Michael Williams
Retention at the Intersections: A Case Study of HIV Stigma, LGBTQ+ Identity, and the Institutional Structuring of Student Persistence by Rodney Parks
Presidential Leadership and Institutional Positioning Strategy Impacting Institutional Sustainability by John Haller and Aaron Meis
Review of: The Signal Solution: How Smart Colleges Stop Chasing Applications and Start Converting Students by Christopher W. Tremblay
share