The Data and Investigative team of The Maneater is working with the Division of Student Affairs Strategic Initiatives and Assessment Office to gather and report data. All numbers come from Student Affairs, including a Welcome Week 2022 survey. The data gathered through this survey may not be representative of the whole student body or the entirety of Welcome Week participants due to attendance tracking methods requiring attendees to self-report. Welcome Week organizers tracked attendance at events throughout the week and sent the survey out to those recorded participants.
The Division of Student Affairs Office of Strategic Initiatives and Assessment surveyed students about their experiences participating in Welcome Week 2022. MU students who attended at least one Welcome Week event or small group session were asked to share their feedback on the Aug. 17-21 events.
Welcome Week is an annual event at the beginning of each school year that serves to welcome new and returning students to MU’s campus while helping them transition into the school year. Events are offered across campus to introduce students to each other and different aspects of the MU student experience.
Ashli Grabau, division of student affairs director of strategic initiatives and assessment, Lexi Wolkow, transfer center student services coordinator, and Kenna Cornelius, office for student engagement assistant director, created the survey. The data was released to The Maneater on Oct. 28.
Respondents were categorized in three ways: new freshman, new transfer and returning undergraduate students. The evaluation featured a series of quantitative questions.
Cornelius said the purpose of the survey was to use student feedback to inform future Welcome Week planning, including funding allocation.
“That’s the ‘why’ behind it: understanding what we did and how we can do better,” Cornelius said.
Wolkow cites the purpose of Welcome Week as getting students acclimated to campus.
“My goals at the end of it are that our students meet each other and they know campus,” she said.
Wolkow said participation during 2022 events was much higher than it was during the past few years, in part because of a broader marketing campaign.
This year, organizers attempted to make Welcome Week what Cornelius referred to as a “marquee event.” This included making efforts to welcome students a campus-wide initiative by involving more departments on campus and creating a website dedicated to Welcome Week. Organizers also provided financial support for student organizations to host events during the week catered to incoming students.
Student feedback shapes the future of MU-sponsored programming and student experiences, according to Cornelius.
“Students are at the core of what we do,” she said. “Understanding student needs [is] really critical to understanding what programming needs to happen on campus.”
6,062
The amount of students who attended a Welcome Week event at the beginning of the year and tracked their attendance.
155
The total number of events offered by MU during Welcome Week. These events included First Come, First Served!, Midnight BBQ, Flick on Faurot, Shakespeare’s Pizza Party and Paint the M.
142
The number of students who were Welcome Week Leaders this year.
Junior Casey Bonds decided to apply to be a Welcome Week Leader because she never got to fully experience the new student activities herself. Welcome Week activities were modified due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“I didn’t get a Welcome Week because I started college in 2020,” she said.
Bonds said she had an overall positive experience with the training process prior to Welcome Week, as well as the week itself, citing the relationships she built with peers.
“I made lots of connections, [and] I learned about lots of stuff that we have on campus that I didn’t know we had before,” she said.
95%
The percentage of new freshman respondents that indicated they “strongly agree or agree” Welcome Week made them feel welcomed to campus. Questions like this helped the team of organizers measure whether they are meeting the objectives of Welcome Week.
“One of our end goals always is that students have a sense of belonging, or that they feel like they can be their authentic selves here and that they are comfortable in this space,” Wolkow said.
90%
The percentage of new transfer students who indicated “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that they were easily able to access and use the Welcome Week schedule throughout the week. The results of the survey also indicated new transfer students learned about the week’s events most frequently from their Welcome Week leaders, email communication and social media.
84%
The percentage of new freshman respondents that “strongly agree or agree” that as a result of Welcome Week, they met a new friend.
4419
The number of students that participated in Welcome Week small groups. This number includes 314 undergraduate students that are living off campus or are transfer students.
According to Cornelius, the 80 Welcome Week small groups organized students into smaller clusters based on shared identities or residence locations.
Wolkow said MU provides small groups during Welcome Week so students can more directly build relationships with peers.
“[Students] really liked any opportunity they had to connect with other students, especially in some of those smaller, more intimate settings,” she said.
The assessment also concluded that not knowing about small groups or other obligations were the main factors preventing student participation.
23%
The response rate for the 2022 Welcome Week Assessment. 1,398 students out of the 6,062 invited completed the survey.
According to Wolkow, the data is already being used to plan next fall’s Welcome Week.
“We want to make this bigger and better every year,” she said. “And that starts with listening to student voices.”
Cornelius said student comments about accessibility, especially in terms of accessing events in varying locations, stuck out to her when reading the survey results.
“[In] some of our larger events, accessibility wasn’t where it should be,” she said.
Organizers are addressing these concerns by including accessibility information in shared event details next year, according to Cornelius.
18%
The percentage of new freshman survey respondents that attended First Roar, which was reported as the most frequently attended event by this group of students. Other highly attended events, according to survey respondents, include Midnight BBQ, which 16% of new freshmen reported attending, and Tiger Walk, which 16% of new freshmen also reported attending.
Wolkow encourages all students to participate in events offered during Welcome Week. “This is the start of finding your niche here at Mizzou.”
Edited by Emma Flannery | eflannery@themaneater.comCopy edited by Emily Rutledge and Lauren Courtney