Navigating the Challenges of Surveying Queer-Spectrum and Trans-Spectrum Students in Higher Education

• In Event: Emerging Research on Queer-Spectrum and Trans-Spectrum Students in Higher Education

Abstract

At the core of higher education’s role in achieving the American Dream is inclusivity. In the 21st century, inclusivity in higher education includes various aspects of student identity in assessment toward the goal of institutional transformation. With over five decades of experience, the Higher Education Research Institution’s (HERI) Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) is in a unique position to capture the student experience, both from a historical perspective and with an eye towards the future. Established in 1966 at the American Council on Education, CIRP is the nation’s largest and oldest empirical study of higher education, collecting data from over 15 million students at approximately 1,900 institutions. CIRP has been administered by HERI since 1973.
Traditional demographics such as sex, race and ethnicity, and first-generation status continue to be important in understanding students. However, students are openly presenting deeper and more nuanced aspects of their identity that may play a critical role in their college experience and success. Data collected on The Freshman Survey (TFS), administered before the start of the freshman year, allows institutions to capture incoming students’ goals, expectations for college, academic preparation, and high school experiences, setting the stage for longitudinal study. Issues of transition and adjustment are assessed by Your First College Year (YFCY) at the end of the first year of college. The Diverse Learning Environments (DLE) survey can be administered to undergraduates at any level and combines students’ views of campus climate, their behaviors, institutional measures, and student outcomes. Finally, the College Senior Survey (CSS) is administered to graduating seniors and allows for the assessment of the entire college experience, anticipated debt, future plans, views, and goals. All of the CIRP student surveys include questions on students’ sexual orientation and gender identity.
When the data sets include student identifiers such as student ID number (as they do with the CIRP surveys), these data points can be combined with other institutional data including enrollment records, financial aid, and student affairs portfolios to maximize the use of both survey data and institutional records to inform local strategic planning, educational policy, and student programming. National studies provide large sample sizes from dozens of participating institutions allowing for analysis of these emerging voices that are often disregarded at institutional level assessment.
Collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity carries many challenges. When administering a survey, students should be informed about the confidentiality and security of the data and how it will be used. When personally identifying information is collected, students need to be reassured that their data will remain confidential, if not anonymous. While students may be more comfortable providing data on an anonymous survey, institutional decision-makers need to weigh the benefit of student openness with the fact that the utility of the data in the future will be limited to the survey data alone rather than the possibility of merging survey data with existing institutional data or longitudinal survey data.
Through inclusivity we can come closer to achieving our dreams for higher education.

Author

• Ellen Bara Stolzenberg, University of California - Los Angeles