And students have participated in droves. They have until Mar. 8 to respond, but in the first three days the online survey was available, over 600 students had already filled it out–a figure that surpasses the combined number of participants in the USLAC and Howard Bernstein rallies.

Certainly, documenting a broad base of student input can be helpful in addressing concerns. But it is important that neither the University nor its students rest complacently on a token effort at creating change.

Many students have critiqued the survey itself. Any widespread survey has its pragmatic limitations; this survey presents options that can be particularly narrow and confusing. Most survey questions must be answered with one of five adverbs, ranging from "very often" to "never." But the scope of questions often fails to encompass the most obvious of concerns. The questions regarding the Health Center, for example, ask only about promptness and availability of service, ostensibly forgetting to address the issue of service quality.

Other survey items, in statement form, call for a response of either "agree," "disagree," or "I don’t know." But when some of the statements regard general knowledge–for example, whether the respondent knows where the University Chaplains’ offices are located–an "I don’t know" response, which renders moot all the surveyee’s follow-up items on the topic, could be easily used where a "disagree" is in fact more appropriate.

Petty semantics aside, the real issue at stake is whether this survey addresses concerns that move students. Certainly, the Office of Student Services cannot address all of students’ issues. But it has a responsibility to hear the voices of students, not merely their codified electronic responses. Even the space for comments at the end of the survey was limited, and required some students to send an extra email with their personalized feedback.

Yet the Office of Student Services can only do so much. Students, too, need to move beyond the convenience of a quick online questionnaire that also functions as a raffle entry. In order to create dialogue, students need to take the initiative in visiting the offices of the deans and the President, all of whom offer drop-in hours. If communication is central to making improvements, then students must take some strides of their own towards pragmatically addressing their concerns.