Seattle Pacific University Image and Awareness Study


Note to Faculty and Staff:

The overall purpose for undertaking the study was to provide information for SPU's positioning efforts and upcoming capital campaign. Target audiences were selected based on the stated positioning, enrollment and fund raising goals found in the University's Comprehensive Plan (e.g. business community, donors, parents, alumni, etc.). The church community was included because of its importance as support in terms of mission-match, as well as a pool for potential students and supporters of the University. Similarly, high school and community college counselors (nominators) were also included because of their role in dispensing college information to potential SPU students.

Where the scope of this research was limited to the purpose outlined above, SPU is conducting ongoing market research for new academic programs currently being considered for implementation (e.g. tutorial BA, nursing teacher certificate, etc.). The following summary of the current study's results was prepared by Gilmore and presented to the SPU Board of Trustees. If anyone has specific questions about the methodology or results that is not explained in the following overview, please contact John Glancy (jglancy@spu.edu) or Jerry Finch (j_finch@spu.edu).

OVERALL SUMMARY

Introduction
Seattle Pacific University has undergone a comprehensive planning process to position the University educationally and operationally for the next century. As part of its positioning strategy SPU has asked the Gilmore Research Group to conduct survey research among seven key constituencies in order to gather the images, perceptions and attitudes they hold about the University. This report summarizes the results of those studies.

Methodology
Telephone interviews were conducted with adults, 18 years and older who were randomly selected from the following seven populations:

The random telephone surveys began October 18, 1999 and concluded December 27, 1999.

Gilmore Research provided the sample for the general public and the business respondents. The telephone calling area for these two groups was the Puget Sound region, identified as Snohomish, King, Pierce, Thurston, Kitsap and Kittitas counties.

Seattle Pacific University provided the sample of church leaders and administrators. The calling area for the church leaders was the Puget Sound region, defined as King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. The calling area included cities directly across the Sound in Kitsap County.

SPU also provided the sample for college nominators, for SPU parents and for its alumni and donors. The calling area for the nominators and the parents was confined to Washington State. The calling area for alumni and donors was nationwide.

Conclusions
Awareness. Top of mind, unaided awareness of Seattle Pacific University is related to the amount of contact the sample group has with SPU. It is strongest among those with the most direct contact and weakest among those with little or no contact. This means that while awareness, or recall of SPU is high among parents, donors and alumni, it is lower among church leaders, and drops off more with nominators, area businesses and the general public.

Impressions of the University. Those who know Seattle Pacific University hold it in high regard. This is evidenced by their superior ratings for its curriculum, its attributes and its contributions to the community. In comparison, those who do not know the University think of it in more neutral terms (if at all), rather than in any kind of negative context. Consequently, they tend to rate Seattle Pacific somewhat lower, giving it fairly neutral scores, rather than negative marks.

Private Vs. Public Education. Respondents agree that there are advantages to having a private education, primarily because private schooling provides more focused attention and smaller classes. Respondents also believe that the value received from a private education is worth the cost. Most think there is an advantage to having a Christian environment in which to learn because they perceive that substantial benefits can be derived from the ethics and morals that are taught in a Christian classroom.

SPU's Christian stance. Those who are at least somewhat familiar with SPU regard its adherence to the Christian tenets as moderate to conservative. Most groups are split in this regard. Donors, however, are more inclined to consider SPU conservative than moderate.

Donors and Alumni. These two groups are among the University's strongest advocates. They rate its academic offerings and its attributes very highly. They believe that SPU offers a very good educational value and they think of it as a leading contributor to the community, perhaps surpassing the contributions that are made by the University of Washington. Donors and alumni can name many strengths associated with SPU, particularly its emphasis on religious or moral values, and its quality education. They are not apt to perceive many weaknesses beyond its cost.

Parents. Seattle Pacific parents - both current and prospective parents - are also big supporters. They give high ratings to SPU academic offerings and to all of its attributes, except its affordability. Despite their low rating for this attribute, they do believe that a private education is worth the cost, and they perceive that SPU offers a very good value in education. Parents see few weaknesses in the University and appreciate its many strengths, particularly its Christian emphasis, its quality education and its faculty and staff.

Nominators. Washington state nominators have good overall awareness of SPU, its programs and its atmosphere. Their opinion of SPU is generally quite positive in terms of academics and Christian emphasis. They are somewhat less aware of its contribution to the community, and as a group, they are less aware of SPU's efforts to become more affordable.

Church Leaders. Seattle Pacific University is well known to church leaders. They recognize SPU as an academically rigorous, Christian university and mention it as one of the premier Christian colleges and universities in the Puget Sound region. They are fairly familiar with the academic programs that SPU offers, particularly the religious and undergraduate studies. They also consider SPU among the most involved in the community and credit SPU with turning out competent graduates. They would in fact, recommend SPU to prospective students. SPU has a strong group of advocates in these church leaders.

General Public and Business Community. Seattle Pacific University does not enjoy high top of mind awareness among the general public or the business community of the Puget Sound region, although the awareness of SPU is comparable to other private schools in the area. Awareness of the academic programs and the atmosphere at SPU and comparable schools is quite low. Among those who have some awareness of SPU, the image is one of quality education and a Christian environment. It is also perceived to be as expensive as other private schools in the area. Business people do not perceive of SPU as a large contributor to the business community nor are they able to rate the quality of the education. They do assume however, that SPU graduates are well prepared for their careers, A real opportunity exists to promote SPU to both the business community and the general public. The overall impression of SPU held by these two groups is limited, but among those few who do know something, the impression is positive. There are no negatives to overcome.

KEY ISSUES SUMMARY
This report summarizes the major findings of the image and awareness research that was conducted for Seattle Pacific University by Gilmore Research, beginning October 18, 1999 and concluding December 27, 1999. The subjects of study are comprised of seven key constituent groups. These groups are: the general public and business people of the Puget Sound region, college nominators, church leaders and administrators, SPU donors, alumni, and current and prospective parents.

The key issues consist of the following items:

• Familiarity with academic programs
• Quality ratings of academics
• Quality ratings of attributes
• Cost / value considerations
• Evaluations of public and private education
• Perceptions of SPU students and school doctrine
• Overall awareness of SPU, its strengths and weaknesses and its impact on the community

Familiarity with academics

• Overall, respondents are more likely to be familiar with undergraduate studies at SPU than with other programs.
• Respondents are generally not familiar with the academic programs offered at other schools.
• Alumni and donors are most familiar with SPU programs.
• Parents of current and prospective students are more familiar with academics than are either the college nominators or the church leaders.
• There is very low familiarity with all of the academic programs at SPU among the general public and the business community.

Quality of academics

• Teacher education achieved the highest quality ratings, overall. ·
• Quality ratings of SPU academics did not significantly differ from quality ratings of other schools. ·
• Alumni, parents and donors gave generally higher ratings to all of the programs, in some cases, significantly higher ratings.
• The business community gave generally lower ratings than other groups.

Quality of attributes

• Christian emphasis received a higher rating than other attributes among all the respondents.
• Affordability received a lower rating than other attributes.
• Quality ratings of SPU attributes did not significantly differ from quality ratings of other schools.
• Donors, parents, alumni and college nominators gave all of the attributes generally higher ratings than the general public, the business respondents and the church leaders. In many cases these ratings were significantly higher.
• Large proportions of respondents from the general public and the business community were unable to rate SPU attributes. This was generally associated with lower quality ratings given by the remaining respondents who were able to give ratings, in these two groups.

Evaluations of public and private education

• Respondents agreed that private education is worth the cost and that a Christian college education makes a positive difference.
• Besides cost, the main differences that respondents perceived between public and private education included:
  • Small class size / individualized instruction - most often named by nominators, alumni, parents and donors
  • Religious / moral / ethical values - most often named by church leaders
  • Better education / better teachers - named about equally by all

Cost / value considerations

• Donors, parents, alumni and college nominators rated SPU significantly higher than church leaders, the general public or business respondents for its educational value.
• College nominators gave SPU a better rating for educational value than four out of seven other schools they were asked to rate.

Perceptions of SPU students and school mission

• A majority of donors, parents, alumni and church leaders thinks SPU students are better prepared for their careers than other students.
• Nominators, the general public and the business respondents perceive that SPU students are about as well prepared as others.
• Alumni and parents are split between those who think it is moderate and those who think it is conservative. Church leaders are also divided, but slightly more believe SPU is conservative.
• A majority of donors considers Seattle Pacific conservative.

Overall awareness of SPU, its strengths, weaknesses and impact

Awareness

• SPU does not enjoy top of mind awareness among the general public or the business community.
• SPU leads other schools in the top of mind awareness among SPU alumni and donors.
• Among parents, church leaders and nominators, awareness of SPU closely parallels the awareness of UW.
• Among the general public and the business community SPU is less well known than the UW, but comparable to other private schools in the region.
• The general public, the business community and college nominators do not readily think of SPU in terms of community outreach.

Strengths

• Donors and alumni perceive a quality education and a strong faculty and staff as strengths associated with the university.
• Parents and church leaders perceive the university's Christian emphasis as an additional strength, and nominators mentioned class size.
• Donors, alumni, parents and church leaders consider SPU to be a primary contributor to the community.

Weaknesses

• Most respondents could not name a weakness associated with the university. Those who did name a weakness mentioned its cost.