MATT HAMPTON | Reporter

Lindenwood students are being asked to take part in the Student Opinion Survey as part of the university’s comprehensive evaluation by the Higher Learning Commission.

The survey will be used to evaluate the school for accreditation and was emailed to students by President Michael D. Shonrock on Sept. 5. It will be open through Sept. 14.

The survey is anonymous and takes about five minutes to complete. It contains mostly multiple-choice questions about enrollment, course content and other topics.

Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness David Wilson said the university submits several forms to the Higher Learning Commission for its evaluation.

Students are encouraged to participate in the survey to provide them with “an opportunity to participate in the accreditation process,” according to the Higher Learning Commission’s website.

He said that after the survey is over, the commission will summarize the data, which will be reviewed both by Lindenwood and the Higher Learning Commission. Later, a peer review team will visit the campus and speak with students and staff.

“If the survey results raise some questions for the team, they’ll try to understand it while they’re here by asking questions,” Wilson said.

The visit to the St. Charles campus will be Nov. 6-7.  However, many details about the visits, including the date of the Belleville campus visit, are unknown.

Wilson hopes that students will feel important because the surveys were sent out by Shonrock, and they’re from the Higher Learning Commission. He said a reminder will be sent out Sept. 11.

“You want it to be taken seriously,” he said. “You want a high response rate, because you want to hear what students have to say. The more feedback we get like this, the more we know where we need to improve.”