Statewide UP/USS Staff Survey

Message from UP & USS Senate Presidents

To our University Support Staff and Unclassified Professional Staff colleagues:

You may recall completing an online poll of University Support Staff (USS) and Unclassified Professional Staff (UP) that was conducted by the Docking Institute on behalf of five of the six Kansas Board of Regents’ (KBOR) Universities.  The poll surveyed staff about work-related issues, such as compensation, morale, and appreciation of work performance. 

As your Senate Presidents, we plan to discuss the survey results at the upcoming November and January Senate meetings, and we will also use the surveys to inform our ongoing discussions with the University administration. They have been supportive of the survey from the beginning and receptive to our feedback passed forward thus far, including the workplace issues identified in survey and some new recognition and appreciation programs.

We are making the statewide and WSU-specific results available to you below. 

The results will be presented to KBOR at its December meeting.

Over 40% of Wichita State’s staff members completed the survey.

Here are a few of the key findings, both bad and good, that stood out:

  • Respondents ranked the “amount of pay or compensation” first in order of importance.
  • When asked about wages, a larger percentage of UP than USS respondents find their wages reasonable
  • Regarding morale, 50.2% of WSU respondents indicated “somewhat positive” – compared to 41.2% of the other Universities. 
  • Larger percentages of WSU respondents than the other University respondents reported that their work is “greatly appreciated” by immediate supervisors, coworkers, and department heads.
  • Key themes in the open-ended comments included: (1) pay me what I’m worth; (2) give me flexibility; (3) improve my work environment; (4) I’d like some perks; (5) help me grow professionally; and (6) parking is a problem. 

Our experience is that Shocker employees take great pride in their work at Wichita State. But, as some of the survey results show, we have opportunities for improvement as a University.  

If you have any questions or comments prior to the Senates taking up these issues next month, please feel free to contact a Senator who represents you, or one of us.

Matt Houston
University Support Staff Senate President, 2019-2020

Julie Scott
Unclassified Professional Senate President, 2019-2020

Note: In the survey results, "UP" and "UPS" may be used interchangeably, as some of the participating universities reference Unclassified Professional Staff as "UPS," while others may abbreviate it as "UP."  The abbreviation "USS" refers to University Support Staff members.