With a response rate of 1,132 faculty members, or 69.7 percent, Nancy Whelchel, the University’s assistant director for survey research, deemed the Faculty Well-Being Survey a success.

The survey addressed topics of concern for faculty, such as diversity and campus leadership.

According to Whelchel, the University will use the survey, which Whelchel and the advisory committee began developing in fall 2004, to increase the quality of time the faculty members spend at N.C. State and will make their work more productive and satisfying.

But because of the size of the survey — 114 questions and an estimated 25 minute completion time — interpretations will take a while to form, Whelchel said.

“I’m really pleased with the number of faculty that took the survey,” she said. “During the survey can be a pretty anxious time — when you come in every morning and get giddy to see how many people took the survey.”

Whelchel and the faculty survey advisory committee sent the survey out by e-mail in September and received the results last week.

The group put together an executive summary, which gives a brief outline and descriptive summary of the results.

“Now we need to weed through all the results that would be of interest for certain groups of faculty,” Whelchel said.

The results were primarily positive, with some negative results mixed in, Whelchel said.

The executive summary reported that three-fourths of the faculty members said they are generally satisfied with the University and over 80 percent said they would recommend their department to others.

The faculty members reported they work an average of 55 hours per week. They are very dissatisfied with the availability of graduate teaching assistants and are not pleased with their overall funding.

“We have a great faculty and we’re trying to understand their interests and needs,” Provost Larry Nielsen said. “That’s why the survey will be so useful.”

Nielsen said he hasn’t had the chance to look over the actual results, just as many of the faculty said, and he has not derived any interpretations from the data.

“It’s too early to draw conclusions and this survey gives us a lot of information to consider,” Nielsen said. “The faculty committee will help peel out certain issues.”

Nina Allan, chair of the Faculty Senate, said she believes these results will not only benefit faculty, but students as well.

“If you learn faculty are happy and things are good around here, that’s good for students,” Allan said. “But if you find out classrooms and labs aren’t big enough, then that may relate to students’ feelings as well.”

One of the main concerns addressed by the survey is the faculty’s sense that more funding is needed.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences produced lower results for overall satisfaction than the University’s other colleges. According to Carmine Prioli, professor of English and director of graduate studies in English, it could be because of lack of funding.

“I can’t compare [CHASS] faculty with other colleges, but I do know the budget cuts have strained us to the very limit,” Prioli said. “But some people are finding a way to do more with less.”

Other complaints the faculty had are the lack of teaching assistant availability as well as funding for research. Gracious Ngaile, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said the funding for research is not enough to get started on.

“They give you a certain amount to begin your research, then it is up to you to fund it through grants after that start-up,” Ngaile said. “But that start-up money isn’t enough.”

Nielsen said he believes these concerns are evident at colleges nationally.

“There are financial situations all over the country, and of course, that’s not what University faculty and students want,” he said. “So it’s typical rather than atypical.”

According to Nielsen, it is concerns such as these that can be deciphered from the survey to increase the quality of experience for University faculty.

“The results of this will feed into the strategic planning and help the mission of this school,” Nielsen said.

Whelchel will be presenting the survey findings to various groups on campus, who will interpret them and try to help their respective groups.

“My goal now is to keep the survey on everyone’s radar and take the results to all different portions of campus,” Whelchel said. “I want to show people that it is in their interests to learn more about it and to find out what the results are saying.”