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Harvard College’s Dean of Students Office is looking for new ways to convince students to fill out its residential life and freshman experience surveys — adding “I Surveyed!” stickers to a list of incentives that already includes raffles, special study breaks, and House merchandise.
Last year, 47 percent of upperclassmen filled out the Residential Life survey, according to Associate Dean of Students Lauren E. Brandt ’01. Freshmen were more eager to respond: 78 percent of last year’s freshman class filled out the First-Year Advising Network survey.
The numbers represent a striking rate of success in convincing Harvard’s notoriously overscheduled student body to submit multi-page online forms. In each of the last four academic years, fewer than a third of undergraduates have voted in the elections for student government president — low turnout that some students have attributed to a lack of incentives to vote.
The DSO, unlike the HUA, has not hesitated to extend rewards to students who participate in College surveys. And the DSO is still looking for new ideas: the office formed a Student Survey Advisory Group last year and is currently working alongside a team of nine undergraduates to motivate more students to fill out forms.
“You have the survey to have the DSO collect information on what the students want and what students need,” said Tirth M. Dave ’26, who has served on the SSAG for the past two years. “They can’t really know what that is until the students fill it out.”
Brandt wrote in an email to The Crimson that student participation is important because “leadership often uses these survey results to make changes in programming — adjusting events, updating support services, or refining residential policies.”
This year’s surveys were accompanied by the usual litanies of perks for participants.
Senior Assistant Dean of Residential Life and First-Year Students Nekesa Straker sent out the First-Year Advising Network survey — which will close on Dec. 9 — to the Class of 2029 last month. Her email advertised that participants would be entered in a raffle for a pair of movie tickets, a group dinner with three friends and their proctor, chair massage vouchers, and extra funding for study breaks.
When Brandt sent out this year’s Residential Life survey — which will close on Dec. 22 — to all sophomores, juniors, and seniors on Nov. 24, her email promised that participation would enter students into a raffle for 15 $25 vouchers at all HUDS cafes. The three Houses or residential communities with the highest participation rates will receive extra funding for either a special study break or merchandise.
Meanwhile, the SSAG — which meets each month with Dean of Students Thomas Dunne — started a student design competition for “I Surveyed!” stickers. Undergraduates voted on their favorite design, which will be distributed at the DSO’s tabling events in common areas and dining halls.
“I think it’ll work,” said Matthew C. Ruiz ’29, a member of SSAG. “I definitely think the food will work especially well. People like free stuff.”
In interviews with the Crimson, many students said that they hadn’t even seen the email publicizing the Residential Life survey.
“It just falls into their inbox and ends up falling to the bottom, especially during finals season, where there’s just so much stuff getting sent out at once,” Madeleine Smack ’28 said.
But hands-on publicity efforts have helped. Mather House rewards each of its students who fill out the survey with a Mather crewneck — a full-scale distribution effort by House staff that’s hard for residents to miss.
“I think that’s a clearly aligned incentive system that could be used in other houses as well,” Mather resident Bright Liu ’26 said.
Some students said House pride played a major role in their decision to fill out the survey.
“I would always fill out the residential survey in the past,” Aeden Marcus ’25 said. “I haven’t seen the email yet, but I’ll probably go find it out and fill it out because I love Quincy House.”
—Staff writer Wyeth Renwick can be reached at wyeth.renwick@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @wzrenwick.
—Staff writer Nirja J. Trivedi can be reached at nirja.trivedi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @nirjatriv.
