This page presents a summary of responses to the open-ended questions (those that asked individuals to write in a response) from the 2025 HEDS Sense of Community Survey. For an interactive dashboard of responses to the closed-ended survey questions (those that provided a list of options to choose from, such as “agree” or “disagree”) see this page.
In the Spring of 2025, St. Olaf administered the HEDS Sense of Community survey to all students, staff, and faculty. Overall, 1,577 students (51%), 403 staff/administrators (75%; these groups are combined due to the small number of self-identified administrators and are referred to generally as “staff” below), and 210 faculty (58%) responded. Around 50-70% of each of these respondent groups answered the three main open-ended questions in the survey:
- What makes you feel like you are part of the St. Olaf community?
- What, if anything, makes you feel like you are not part of the St. Olaf community?
- What can St. Olaf do to better support you and increase your sense of community at St. Olaf?
The three populations surveyed shared many similarities in what made them feel like part of, or excluded from, the St. Olaf community. These general themes also had several points of overlap, with many comments covering a range of themes. Among the things that connected people to the community:
- Relationships with peers and colleagues were at or near the top of the list for all three groups. These personal connections both within and across students, staff, and faculty provided a network of trusted reslationships and positive day-to-day experiences.
- Many talked about recognition and support from leadership figures or peers. For students, care and respect from faculty and staff had an important impact; for faculty and staff, feeling appreciated for their work and input, as well as a sense of common purpose, mattered a great deal.
- Several cited existing opportunities to foster and strengthen community in the form of events on campus, as well as co-curricular activities for students and divisional/department meetings for staff and faculty.
On the other hand, individuals felt excluded from the community for the following reasons:
- Divisions between individuals:
- Several students shared about the difficulties of making friends or breaking through a perceived “clique-y” culture on campus.
- Staff and faculty discussed different hierarchies in the workplace; many staff felt deprioritized compared to faculty, while non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty felt undervalued compared to their tenured or tenure-track colleagues.
- Several staff and faculty also brought up a lack of connection with colleagues, either due to few structured opportunities for interaction, workload levels, or living distance from campus leaving little time to engage. For staff, this at times also manifested as animosity or resistance to collaboration from other areas, while the same did not seem to be true for faculty.
- Individuals from all three groups (students, staff, faculty) talked about exclusions based on different identities (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, nationality) or political/religious views, particularly more moderate or conservative ones.
- Feeling unsupported and/or undervalued:
- All three groups discussed a lack of input into decision-making or policies that impacted their lives and work on campus.
- Some students also talked about feeling uncared for or unsupported either academically or personally.
- Several staff and faculty (particularly NTT faculty) brought up low pay or feeling undervalued for their work contributions.
Suggestions for ways to improve the sense of community at St. Olaf unsurprisingly related to mitigating the above concerns. Respondents shared ideas for building stronger social and/or professional connections across campus – particularly aimed towards breaking down the divides discussed above – and ensuring that all voices, contributions, and identities are equally valued and supported.