The Office of Institutional Research has established the following policy related to surveys of students, faculty, or staff. The goals of this policy are:

• to minimize individuals’ burdens for responding to surveys;
• to ensure that data collected is valid and reliable and is used for informed decision-making;
• to respect the academic freedom of faculty and students conducting scholarly research

This policy is in addition to, not a substitute or replacement for, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) policies for the use of human subjects.

General Purpose Surveys

Any administrative office or committee, student organization, or outside entity wishing to survey students, faculty, and/or staff must submit a request to the Office of Institutional Research two weeks before the proposed survey is scheduled to commence.

After consulting with the party requesting the survey, the Director of Institutional Research will approve or disapprove the request.

• The request may not be approved if information similar to what is being sought already exists.
• The request may not be approved if the survey places an undue burden on the individuals being surveyed, makes poor use of resources, or might unduly reduce future response rates.

If the request is approved, Institutional Research can provide the following support:

• identify an appropriate sample of the population
• consult on the proposed survey instrument to help reduce bias
• create the survey instrument using our web-based software
• send the survey to the sample electronically
• collect responses electronically
• provide the survey results to the party requesting the survey (maintaining respondent anonymity if appropriate).

Survey results must be shared with the Office of Institutional Research.

Scholarly Research Surveys

Faculty or students who wish to survey students, faculty, and/or staff for scholarly research should notify the Office of Institutional Research about their research as early as possible, indicating (to the degree possible without compromising the research):

• the sample to whom the survey will be sent,
• the nature of the survey, and
• the timeframe for the survey.

Sending a copy of the actual survey instrument to Institutional Research would be appreciated, but is not required.

Sharing the results of the survey and the associated research with Institutional Research would be appreciated, but is not required.

Institutional Research may be able to provide support for scholarly research, depending on available capacity.

The Rhodes College Site

The Rhodes College site is managed by the Office of Communications to provide the entire Rhodes community – prospective students, current students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, visitors, employers, the media, etc. – with up-to-date information about the college and access to Internet-based functional features (such as searches, online applications and event registrations).

Although the Office of Communications centrally manages the overall design, organization and interface for the Rhodes site, responsibility for content maintenance is shared with each division and department. Participation in site content maintenance ranges from working with the Office of Communications to assist with content updates to direct input of content updates through the college′s web content management system. The level of this participation in content maintenance is determined as needed during site planning with each division or department according to resource availability within that division or department.

Regardless of whether division / department participation in site content maintenance is direct or indirect, each division or department is responsible for making sure all content on the site related to their operational areas is accurate and timely.

Responsibility for site content maintenance is allocated as follows:

• The Office of Communications is responsible for editing copy as needed and maintaining design continuity, interface usability and graphic standards.
• Division heads are responsible for factual accuracy, appropriateness, timeliness and provision of current content for all content related to their areas of operation.
• Individual staff and faculty members within each division or department may be designated as content management system contributors and thereby are responsible for provision and/or input of content specific to their division, department or area of expertise.

Appropriate Use of Rhodes Computing and Telecommunications Resources

All members of the Rhodes community who use these college resources are expected to do so in a responsible and ethical manner. The right to use Rhodes’ computing and telecommunications resources can be revoked if misused or abused. Appropriate use prohibits: commercial activities; creating, displaying, or transmitting threatening, racist, sexist, obscene, or harassing language and/or materials; copyright and licensing violations; violation of personal privacy; acts in violation of federal and/or state laws.

Web content must be directly related to Rhodes’ academic programs or those services at the college that support those programs.

While it is impossible for the college to monitor full accuracy or suitability of materials on all departmental, student organization or individual pages, Rhodes will exercise diligence in dealing with questions of error or impropriety. Such questions may be referred to the appropriate President′s Staff member.

In keeping with Rhodes’ tradition of student self-governance, students are expected to use the Internet in ways consistent with codes of conduct established in the Honor Council and Social Regulations Council and with the Standards of the Rhodes Community. Cases of student violation of these codes in use of the Internet will be heard as is appropriate by either the Honor Council or the Social Regulations Council.

Respect for intellectual labor and creativity is vital to academic discourse and enterprise. This principle applies to works of all authors and publishers in all media. It encompasses respect for the right to acknowledgment, right to privacy, and right to determine the form, manner, and terms of publication and distribution.

Because electronic information is volatile and easily reproduced, respect for the work and personal expression of others is especially critical in computer environments. Violations of authorial integrity, including plagiarism, invasion of privacy, unauthorized access, and trade secret and copyright violations, may be grounds for sanctions against members of the academic community.