UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s faculty job satisfaction survey will be emailed to all eligible full-time faculty beginning the week of Feb. 3. Administered by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at Harvard University, the goal of the survey is to provide critical insight into the lived experiences of Penn State’s full-time faculty and identify areas of strength and for improvement. Faculty should look for an email from COACHE with a confidential, individualized link to complete the survey.
In addition to the COACHE faculty survey, Penn State Human Resources will also be surveying full-time staff and technical service employees, including upper-level academic administrators, in February 2025. The staff survey will be administered by ModernThink, a survey group with extensive experience in higher education.
“It’s a great opportunity for University Faculty Senate to be partnering with the provost’s office on a process that can improve the University over the long term,” said Josh Wede, chair of the University Faculty Senate. “We would love every eligible faculty member to complete the survey to ensure we have the best data possible to analyze. While the impacts will not be immediate, completing the survey is the first step in the process.”
Faculty have eight weeks to complete the survey, beginning the week of Feb. 3 and concluding the week of April 7. There will be four emails sent out as reminders to complete the survey. The Penn State COACHE committee has prepared a glossary of terms to assist faculty in answering the COACHE survey questions.
“The COACHE faculty job satisfaction survey comes at a critical time at Penn State as we plan for the future,” said Tracy Langkilde, interim executive vice president and provost. “Data from the COACHE survey will help us identify both areas of strength and where improvements are needed, to help us best plan for the future and improve how we recruit and retain faculty. People are our most valuable resource, and this survey is a commitment to the success and support of our faculty.”
The COACHE faculty job satisfaction survey is designed to provide a broad view of trends across Penn State but also will provide opportunities to generate discussion and affect change at the campus, college and department levels. Topics covered by the survey will include shared governance; engagement; collegiality; recruitment and retention; appreciation and recognition; interdisciplinary work; institutional leadership; resources and support; promotion and tenure; and more.
Full-time faculty — tenure-line and non-tenure-line — at all campuses, who are active faculty, who have been employed for at least one year in a faculty role at Penn State and who are not in their terminal year after being denied tenure, are eligible to take the survey. Academic administrators who hold campus/college-level positions, including those holding interim roles, are not included in the survey.
Eligible faculty will receive an email from COACHE that includes a confidential, individualized link to take the survey, which should take about 25 minutes to complete. All survey responses will be confidential; the privacy of participants is paramount and will be upheld in all published results, including the analysis Penn State receives from COACHE following the survey’s conclusion and any subsequent analysis by Penn State.
Administering the faculty survey is the first step in a three-year process working with COACHE. In fall 2025 Penn State will receive institutional results from COACHE. The focus of year two will be on evaluating findings, disseminating results to the University community and prioritizing initiatives. Year three of the engagement with COACHE includes acting on priorities, planning to implement and tracking progress. Throughout the process Penn State will work with the COACHE team and will have the opportunity to engage with peer institutions who have completed the COACHE survey process to learn from their efforts.
Visit Penn State’s COACHE website for additional information, including timelines, committee membership, eligibility requirements, frequently asked questions and more, and to follow progress over time. Questions can be sent to coache@psu.edu.