Planning for the Twenty-first Century University Strengths, Weaknesses, and Community Involvement As Perceived by the Hamilton County Community Metropolitan universities such as The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are faced with the challenge of determining their roles in the larger communities in which they exist. The University Relations Office contracted the Center for Applied Social Research to conduct a research project assessing the public's perceptions of UTC as an institution of higher education and as a community partner. The objectives of the study were to obtain information from the community about their degree of interest in UTC and other universities and colleges and about their perceptions of UTC's involvement in the community. Methods: Sample: Questions were presented to a simple random sample of 446 Hamilton County residents. Our sample demographics paralleled the population figures well, while slightly over-representing women and people with higher levels of education. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: The interviews were conducted by telephone, coded, and entered into a computer file for quantitative data analysis. Analyses were conducted on the entire sample to provide information about the public's perception of UTC, as well as on sub-populations to examine the similarities and differences of opinion by race/ethnicity and gender. Findings: There were three major focuses of the study: 1. General Interest in Colleges and Universities Respondents were asked to rate their degree of interest in several local and regional schools including UTC, UTK, Chattanooga State, Tennessee Tech, and MTSU. The mean level of interest in attending the five colleges and universities was highest for UTC with a mean of 1.85 (1=very interested and 4=not at all interested). All of the other means for interest in attendance are between 2.29 and 3.22 which denotes a less than somewhat interested mean response. Chattanooga State (2.29) and UTK (2.32) come closest to UTC in general interest. 2. Perceived Quality of UTC: The study also gauged the public's perception of UTC and the quality of UTC in the areas of academics, faculty, sporting events, fine arts events, arena events, and service to the community. Academics The quality of academics at UTC was believed to be very high with a mean score of 1.88. The quality of UTC's faculty was perceived as being rather high with a mean score of 1.96. Quality of Fine Arts Events This area elicited a mean score of 1.98. Quality of Arena Events was also perceived favorably, receiving a mean score of 1.98. Responses to sporting events indicates an area in which UTC's quality ratings dropped somewhat. The mean response to the question about UTC's sporting events is 2.19 (1= excellent and 4= poor). Quality of UTC's service to the community also received a lukewarm response with a mean of 2.09. UTC's Community Involvement We also gauged the public's perception of UTC's level of involvement in the following parts of the community: urban development, business partnerships, local government, elementary and secondary education, regional environmental concerns, and health care. There is quite a large percentage of people who are not aware of UTC's involvement in urban development. About half of the respondents said that they don't know how involved UTC is in urban development. Of those who did reply, the mean score for the sample was 2.18 (1 = very involved and 4 =not involved at all) which suggests that Hamilton County residents who are aware of UTC's involvement in urban development feel UTC is a little less than somewhat involved. Business partnerships Regarding UTC's involvement in business partnerships, 38% did not know what level of involvement UTC has. Consistent with our analysis of urban development, those respondents who are aware at all of UTC's involvement in business partnerships rate UTC's involvement as being high. This is also evidenced by the mean score of 1.91 (1 = very involved and 4 = not at all involved) which is slightly more than somewhat involved. Involvement in elementary and secondary education Over 50% of the respondents replied that they did not know about UTC's level of involvement in elementary or secondary education. Of the respondents who were aware, the mean score for UTC's involvement in elementary or secondary education is 1.95 (1 = very involved and 4 = not at all involved) which corresponds to somewhat involved. Involvement in regional environmental concerns The mean score for the respondents is 1.98 (1= very involved and 4= not at all involved) which corresponds with the somewhat involved category. Involvement in environmental concerns has the lowest number of respondents who claimed they were unfamiliar with UTC's involvement. Only 30% of the respondents were in this category. The mean score for UTC's involvement in environmental concerns is 1.98, slightly higher than somewhat involved. These findings show that when people are aware of UTC's presence in the community, they rate UTC highly. Local government We asked the respondents how involved they thought UTC was in local government. Of those who were aware of UTC's involvement in local government, the mean score is 2.11 which is slightly less than somewhat involved. Health care The mean score was 2.08, indicating that respondents felt UTC was somewhat involved in health care. Similar to all of the items in this section, there was a large percentage of people who said that they did not know how involved UTC is in health care issues. We stress that the bimodal character of responses to questions about UTC's community involvement, with respondents either designating a high level of involvement or saying they were did not know about UTC's level of involvement, leads to the interpretation that UTC is favorably assessed when people have information regarding its involvement. Despite the low response to questions concerning UTC's involvement in the community, it is important to note that opinions are overwhelmingly favorable. However, the high level of missing data points to a serious gap between UTC's actual involvement and the community's perception of it. It is important to note that awareness of UTC's role in these areas declined in proportion to the immediate interest of the area to the average person in their everyday lives. Rated in order of awareness the areas of involvement are as follows: health care, elementary and secondary school partnerships, environmental concerns, business partnerships, urban development, and the local government. This probably also reflects the order of importance people place on these areas, or, perhaps more importantly, the order of importance in which the media presents them. This is likely due to people's tendency to discard or ignore information that they don't feel relates to them directly. News Releases: A Community Surveyed: Hamilton County Residents Give UTC High Marks UTC Faculty and Staff Surveyed: State Funding, Salaries Listed as Chief Concerns UTC Students Surveyed: Students Satisfied with Quality of Institution

Last updated: April 29, 1998.
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