At minimum, you are being asked to complete this form in order for us to catalog your survey, administration window, and audience. For those seeking assistance, we will work with you on fielding dates and/or creating a sample for your survey project pending survey administration approval.

A survey has been identified by the University as a Core Student Survey if it has senior-level administrative support and provides essential data for University-wide strategic planning, accreditation, student health and safety, or federal/state compliance.
 

Surveys may be proposed for Core University status by administrative units or governance bodies. You must submit a formal proposal to U-SAT using the Criteria and Process for Core University Survey Designation, which requires you to provide the survey name, objective, target audience, evidence of Dean-level sponsorship, and a brief explanation of why the survey qualifies.

To be considered, a proposed survey must demonstrate executive sponsorship (at the level of Dean or higher), institutional impact, a broad scope targeting a large-scale representative sample, a recurring cycle, uniqueness of data that cannot be obtained elsewhere, and methodological rigor.

As of July 2026, the designated Core University Surveys include the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU), Graduate Student Experience in the Research University (gradSERU), Campus Climate Survey, National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Post Graduation Survey (PGS), College Student Health Survey (CSHS), Prevention of Sexual Misconduct, OIT Stakeholder Survey, and Student Wellbeing Institutional Support Survey (SWISS).

For the purposes of U-SAT, a survey or questionnaire is defined as a list of questions typically asked of undergraduate or graduate students, oftentimes administered through online survey software such as Qualtrics.

Certain forms and instruments are not considered surveys by U-SAT and do not require submission. These include Student Rating of Teaching (SRTs) and course evaluations, in-class check-ins, lunch preferences, program satisfactions, quizzes and test instruments, RSVPs, scheduling forms, human resources documents, and workshop registrations.

Surveys requesting a sample of fewer than 1,000 students overall, or fewer than 15% of enrollment from Crookston, Morris or Rochester, or fewer than 4% of enrollment from Duluth are exempt from full U-SAT review. However, these will undergo an expedited review, and we still ask that you complete the intake form so the project can be added to the survey calendar.

Yes. If you are requesting to survey a total of 1,000 or more students, or 15% or more of the current student enrollment from Crookston, Morris or Rochester, or 4% or more of the current student enrollment from Duluth, you must receive approval from your collegiate dean or higher authority prior to submitting your Approval and Assistance Request Form.
 

Yes, but all requests to obtain student email lists for the purpose of surveying must be facilitated through the survey approval process developed by U-SAT. This ensures data is pulled correctly and helps prevent survey fatigue.

Once a request is submitted, U-SAT members are given 24 hours to review and vote. A simple majority by current U-SAT members in favor of the request within that 24-hour window is needed for approval.

If a request is denied by U-SAT—or if a specific request for a student email sample is denied—the requester has the right to appeal U-SAT’s decision following the U-SAT Process for Appeals. A link will be provided as part of the denial message.  

A request may be denied or delayed if it conflicts with a Core University Survey, if there is a conflict with too many additional surveys currently in the field, or if the U-SAT review principles are not upheld. U-SAT works to reduce overlapping fielding dates and aims to ensure that no more than two Core Surveys are administered in the same semester.

To help mitigate survey fatigue, U-SAT may occasionally recommend alternative, non-survey methods to collect your information. This could include focus groups, interviews, direct observation, or utilizing existing data. If the data you need already exists, U-SAT can connect you with a Core Survey contact.

Yes. U-SAT provides consultation and recommends several best practices for increasing response rates, including the use of targeted incentives, sweepstakes, and developing a comprehensive communications and marketing plan prior to launch. Refer to the USAS Guide to Improve Response Rates for helpful suggestions. 

You are being asked to complete the Intake and Consultation form so that U-SAT can serve the university better by knowing what survey activity is happening to which populations and when.  For example, if you are seeking to survey staff and faculty during the fielding period of the Employee Engagement survey, then we would work with you to avoid administration overlap as much as possible to ensure that both projects are as successful as they can be.