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Pulse Survey

What is the Pulse Survey?
Our Focus

This initiative provide insights into the experiences and context of student life at Stony Brook University. This tool was implemented to monitor the overall sentiment of the campus community and ensure that senior leaders and others could be connected to the vital feedback that would help them improve the campus experience. The development and implementation of the Pulse Survey has helped with pairing data with demographic information, and integrating those insights into assessment practices, leadership briefings, and institutional transformation initiatives. It has also helped to identify trends in sentiment throughout the school year, and has been used as a tool to know when to deploy student support services, follow-up, and intervention.

Approach


Pulse overview showing icons with text underneath that labels aspect of the pulse survey as a one question survey that is administered weekly and its results are distributed via dashboards

 

Partners

The initiative is the result of a campus-wide partnership across the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Institutional Research, Planning & Effectiveness, Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, Enterprise Risk Management, Campus Dining, Colleges and Schools, and many more.

 

Email Outreach

Email Outreach

Dear [STUDENT NAME],

We want your feedback! Using the Campus Pulse Survey, our goal is to listen and understand more about your current experiences at Stony Brook University. Your feedback will help us improve our services and your experience. Your participation is voluntary and the survey is only one question (with an option to share additional feedback as a comment).

You can participate by responding to the question below:
Suvery question asking to rank experience on a 1-7 scale
Based on your experiences this week, how likely are you to recommend Stony Brook University to a friend or peer?

Or to respond via your web browser, you can click here or copy and paste the following URL into your browser:

[LIVE LINK]

We know you have a lot going on so as a thank you for your participation, any student who participates will be entered into a monthly raffle for some awesome SBU swag pictured below!

Fall 2024 Data Highlights

>27,000
rating responses

 

>8,000
comments

Weekly Rating Tracking

 

A slide showcasing the average scores of respondents to the pulse survey over time and annotating likely associated events like school breaks

 

 

Sentiment Analysis

 

A chart depicting the coded sentiment of comments returned from the pulse survey and their association with topics salient to student life and experiences

 

 

Sentiment Tracking by Themes

 

A chart showing sentimenet tracking of pulse survey comments across time and coded by thematic areas such as academic experiences, student life, and university services

 

Awards & Presentations

Awards & Presentations

Quick Insights, Big Impact: Leveraging Pulse Surveys and AI. Association for Institutional Research Annual Forum, Orlando, FL (May 2025).

Listening every week: How a high-frequency pulse survey enhances engagement, Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Annual Meeting (Nov 2024).

Taking the pulse of the campus: How to launch a 2-item weekly pulse survey, institutionalize its insights, and harness AI tools for deeper analysis, APLU Commission on Information, Measurement & Analysis Summer Meeting (July 2024).

Taking the Pulse of the Campus: How to Launch and Use a 2-Item Pulse Survey. NASPA Region II Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA (June 2024).

Listening to the campus pulse: Lessons learned from two years of administering a pulse survey, Association of American Universities (May 2024).

Taking the Pulse of the Campus: How to Launch and Use a Two-Item Pulse Survey. Issued by State University of New York Chief Student Affairs Officers and the Office of University Life. (June 2023).

Outstanding Student Affairs Program Award. Issued by State University of New York Chief Student Affairs Officers and the Office of University Life for the project Taking the Pulse of the Campus: How to Launch and Use a Two-Item Pulse Survey. (June 2023).

Taking the pulse of the campus: How to launch and use a two-item pulse survey. Association for Institutional Research Annual Forum, Cleveland, OH (May 2023).