Now in Washburn inboxes – no, not more spam – is a Student Outcomes Benchmarking Project from the Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

The project is a survey that was delivered to all student, faculty and staff My Washburn account e-mail addresses last Friday.

“It’s going to allow us to document the contribution the SRWC is making to the overall mission of Washburn and to the educational experience of students,” said Joel Bluml, SRWC director.

Bluml said the survey will take about 10 minutes to complete and will be all point and click with an opportunity to type in responses as well.

“We’re trying to find out how we can serve the students, faculty and staff better,” said Bluml.

The survey will focus on five benchmarks the SRWC wants to look at: 1) How the SRWC affects recruitment and retention of students; 2) Usage statistics or barriers to participation; 3) Satisfaction with facilities, programs and services; 4) Learning outcomes assessment; 5) Enhancement or needs assessment.

The survey is one that is used nationally, so the SRWC can see where it ranks against national averages.

“We are going to be able to benchmark ourselves against other facilities in the United States,” said Bluml. “You do these surveys because you think you know how you’re doing, but until you ask people, you don’t really know.”

The survey is anonymous. Those who complete it will be sent to another page where they can enter their information (separate from the survey) to be entered into a drawing to win one of four $50 Best Buy gift cards.

“We just really want to encourage students, faculty and staff – not only those that do, but don’t use the SRWC – to fill out the survey so we can work on eliminating the barriers and improving the services for people not using the SRWC,” said Bluml.