| Summary: | December 8,1978 THE CONCORDIAN Page 9 Survey Results Provide Insights into New Students' Goals at Concordia By JENNY RINGERUD [Editor's Note: This is the second and concluding install-ment of a series describing the purpose and results of an experi-mental survey completed by students new to Concordia last falLl The New Student Survey, which was completed by all new students during Orientation Week, has yielded informative results. The survey was conducted in an effort to reach out to new students and discover their con-cerns about college life. Ques-tions were asked about career interests, choosing a major, work plans, extra-curricular ac-tivities, graduation plans, and certainty or uncertainty of plans for the future. The Student Affairs staff and Dr. Leslie C. Nieves-Squires, director of in-structional research at Concor-dia, has been assessing the survey's results for the past semester. Severaf questions were asked * Scrooge Continued from Page 8 Q: You will hold office hours on Christmas Day? A: Of course. And I will have an awful lot of students with excuses to turn in their papers late. Q: But don't you think you ought to let your secretary have the day off? A: Wouldn't make a particle of difference if she was there or not. Q: Would you say you bear the chains you forged in life? A: I don't even understand that! I'm not dead yet! I may seem like it, but. Q: What about Tiny Ralph's health? Will he make it through yet another Yuletide season? A: Ralph has never been tiny. And whether he makes it through another Yuletide Sea-son, you can worry about that. I'm not going to. Q: If you could stop counting your quarters for a moment, why is it so cold in here? A: I never count quarters. They're beneath my dignity to begin with. And it's cold in here because I prefer students stay as little as possible in this office. I would rather have pneumonia than kids. How's that for "hum-bug? Q: I hear you have a villa at the North Pole. Why is the North Pole your favorite vaca-tion spot? A: Because there are no people around. Q: Is it true you really don't believe in Santa Claus? A: I am Santa Claus. Q: But how do you explain the tiny elves constantly cleaning up the buffalo chips in your office? A: This is slander. There are no buffalo chips in my office. There are buffalo but they have been trained not to have any chips. And elves are not allowed in the office—neither are fresh-men. Q: And lastly, just how many Christmas ties do you expect this year? A: Enough to annoy all of my students with my so-called abominable taste. And so ends my Christmas tale with Concordia's very own Scrooge. Merry Christmas, Scrooffft Prftiisnitz! And here's wishing you an ample supply of Christmas ties to add to your established collection. P.S. Rumor has it the Com-mons will serve a special lutefisk dinner for you on Christmas Day. . V v , _,,,.,-./. ^ . . .,. regarding students' educational backgrounds. Responses to the question, "How well would you say your high school education prepared you in the following skills areas?" indicated that those questioned consider them-selves somewhat better than "moderately prepared" in the areas of mathematics, English skills, science, history, and ar-tistic skills. They ranked them-selves either moderately or less than moderately prepared in social sciences, typing, study habits, and the matter of a career. New, students gave low-est marks to their preparation in the area of foreign languages. In response to a question asking about first choices of majors, 20.8 percent (158 stu-dents out of 760) chose business administration. Biology was first choice for 91 students; 82 chose music; 56 favored elementary education; and social work was chosen by 35 students. These were the five top-ranking choices for major. Students were also asked, "How much do you already know about the major which you marked 'first choice'?" Those having extensive contact or ex-perience in their chosen field numbered 190 (22.0 percent). Students who had some contact were 609 (70.5 percent) and 65 students (7.5 percent) reported having no experience in the area in which they had decided to major. In addition to questions con-cerning possible majors, several questions were asked about ca-reer plans. One question asked to what degree the students' career plans have been made. Of the 871 who responded, nearly 25 percent said they had chosen a career, while over 33 percent said they had tentatively chosen one. Faced with the question, "How pressured do you feel to make a decision about your career plans?" 5.9 percent re-ported that they were highly pressured, 30.75 percent report-ed they felt medium pressure, 23.3 percent said they felt little pressure, and 9.4 percent said they felt no pressure. Holding down a job while attending school is a concern and a need for many students. Those planning to work while going to school numbered 351 (40.2 per-cent). 164 did not plan to work Bartz Revises His Textbook The fifth edition of a graduate-level textbook on statistics for education and the behavioral sciences will be available in January. It is written by Dr. Albert E. Bartz, a professor of psychology at Concordia. Dr. Bartz said his book, "Descriptive Statistics for Edu-cation and the Behavioral Sciences," is intended to provide a basic foundation in statistics. It combines text, completed examples, and practice problems. The latest edition includes updated information on determining the reliability and validity of test instruments, and all of the practice problems have been revised, he said. Because the book is trequently used as a-supplement in a course on tests and measures, it includes a table of cross references correlating its chapters to pages in more than a dozen major texts on tests and measures. . Published by Burgess Publish-ing Co., Minneapolis, the book first appeared in 1958. The last edition came out in 1971. A Valley City, N.D., native and 1955 graduate of Concordia, Bartz has a master's degree from the University of North Dakota and a doctorate from the University of Arizona. He has done additional work at the University of Denver. Dr. Bartz joined the Concordia faculty in 1957. Drama Seminar Set forJune A seminar on drama that will include trips to Canada and elsewhere to see performances will be offered during the second summer session next June. The seminar, led by Dr. Gordon Lell of the English Department, will run from June 11 through July 6. It will involve two weeks on campus where participants will read and dis-cuss between ten and twelve plays. In the final two weeks, participants will travel to the Stratford and Shaw Festivals in Ontario, and the Guthrie The-atre in Minneapolis. 7* LIST A&M Horizon Records Specially Pried it 4 " At Al 3 Motor! MMMS botHm • ' ' » • - • . „ • . 815 Main Moorhead 221 Broadway Fargo 624 N. 5th St. Fargo and 358 (41 percent) were uncer-tain. Most of those students plan-ning to work intended to find jobs on campus. 342 (58.2 per-cent) planned to work at Con-cordia, while 143 students hoped to find jobs off campus and a third group of 101 planned to work both on and off campus. Responses varied to the ques-tion of the number of hours students were willing to work per week. Those who planned to work eight hours or less were 35.2 percent. The largest per-centage, 51.4, answered nine to 16 hours per week. Some 11.6 percent planned on 17 to 24 hours and one percent intended to work 25 to 32 hours per week. When asked about graduation plans, out of 754 students, 550 answered that yes, they did plan to graduate from Concordia Col-lege. Forty-four responded no and 274 were uncertain about their plans. "If you plan to graduate from college, what is the highest degree you plan to work to-ward?" A bachelor's degree was most popular with 343 students. Of those thinking of doing grad-uate work, 158 said they would work toward a master's degree and 77 for their doctorates. A variety of questions regard-ing the backgrounds of new students were asked. Out of 773 new students, 377 (48.8 percent) reported that some of their relatives had attended Concor-dia at some time in the past. Those reporting a fellow family member currently enrolled at Concordia numbered 153. To the question, "How often do you plan to go home during the school year?" 404 (49.6 percent) answered once or twice a* semester, 340 (41.8 percent) answered once or twice a month, and 43 (5.2 percent) answered once a week. The above questions are just a sample of the New Student Survey. Through careful exami-nation of the questionnaire data, Concordia administrators and faculty hope to find better ways to serve new students' needs. A few of the many Christmas saving ideas from: Marguerite's • Alvarez Guitars-20% off • Ovation Guitars-40% off • Conn Classic Guitars-20% off, plus FREE case • Gibson Amps.-reg. $100, now $79.95 • Many stocking stuffers to choose from (218) 233-7546 2409 10th Street S. Moorhead, MN. 56560 GOOD LUCK COBBER FOOTBALL TEAM! NOW OPEN! Moorhead, Minnesota Copyright 019'$ &T Wimti'i irietwiiwui. Inc. Attriftiu itwf*«4. . ' . ' . » , * ' V * • * * *
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