Dear Berkeley undergraduate student,
We invite you to take the first Student Pulse Survey of the fall term. These confidential, one-minute Pulse Surveys capture your feedback so UC Berkeley can better support you. As a token of our appreciation, if you complete the survey, you will have a chance to win a $100 gift card of your choice.
The Fall 2023 Pulse Survey #1 is now open
This Pulse Survey asks for your thoughts on your experiences starting the Fall semester at UC Berkeley. A link to the Pulse Survey is below and appears as a task in CalCentral. The survey is confidential and results will be displayed only in the aggregate. The last day to submit your responses is Friday, September 22, 2023.
Take Fall 2023 Pulse Survey #1
Results from Spring 2023 Pulse Survey #2
The results from the Spring 2023 Student Pulse Survey #2 are available on the Pulse Survey website, and below are some highlights:
- 94% of undergraduates and 95% of graduate students reported that they had safe, adequate housing throughout the Spring semester. This is an improvement compared to the Spring and Fall 2022 surveys. Students who report housing insecurity in the survey are automatically directed to a Basic Needs Center intake form.
- Developing more student housing is a campus priority, and UC Berkeley currently has several housing expansion projects underway that will add more than 2,600 new beds in the coming years.
- Mental health indicators were also improved compared to last year for undergraduate students; 25% reported signs of depression (compared to 30% in Spring 2022) and 35% signs of anxiety (compared to 38%). Graduate student self-reported mental health was similar to 2022.
- Let's Talk and Group Counseling sessions are available and many are tailored to specific communities including Grad Men’s Support, Student Parents / Caregivers, and Native American / Indigenous Students.
- Undergraduate students indicated great appreciation for academic advisors offering different modes of contact. The most commonly-identified acceptable advising mode for straightforward tasks was email (68%) followed by remote one-on-one meeting (66%). For complex tasks, students found one-on-one meetings acceptable, either in person (81%) or remote (73%).
- The L&S Advising Virtual Front Desk continues to get positive feedback from students; this supplements traditional, prescheduled 30-minute advising appointments. Data Science Advising, for example, offers a hybrid advising system to allow students to select what works best for them.
- When asked about how they access buildings and services, many students use physical keys or Cal 1 Cards (30%) multiple times per week to access buildings, and order food in person (29%) on campus. Most would prefer to be able to use a phone to access buildings (67%) and order on-campus food (65%).
- The campus is working on new food delivery service options with GrubHub and will have more details in the fall.
Survey Drawing Winners
Congratulations to the following recipients of $100 gift cards from Spring 2023 Pulse Survey #2:
- Christopher Cassin, Linguistics undergraduate
- Ítarala Gamboa, Sociology and Theater & Performance Studies undergraduate
- Jeffrey Wei, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research undergraduate
- Masooma Shahid, Molecular and Cell Biology undergraduate
- Pelumi Omoniyi, School of Law graduate student
Additional information about the Pulse Survey, including results from previous surveys, is available on the Undergraduate Education website. If you have any questions or concerns with the Pulse Survey, please contact UE_DataTeam@berkeley.edu.
Thanking you in advance for your participation in the survey and wishing you every success this semester.
Fiat Lux,
This message was sent to all UC Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students.