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SATISFACTION WITH THE INTERPERSONAL CLIMATE
The final type of satisfaction discerned by the students was satisfaction with the interpersonal
climate – faculty-student relationships and peer culture.
Level of Satisfaction with the Interpersonal Climate
Rowan students are very positive about the interpersonal climate, and their satisfaction with
the climate tends to be higher the longer they have been in the program (the most satisfied in
these respects are the seniors). Table IIE-12 presents some of the individual items making up
each of the factors, as well as the factor scores, by year in school. (We present the percentage
who “strongly agree” with the individual items, because if we included those who “agree” as
well as “strongly agree”, we would have nearly all the students.) High percentages of students
feel the faculty are approachable, respect them, and support and encourage them.
With respect to the interpersonal climate among students, high percentages of students feel a
sense of community among engineering students, see fellow students as friendly and as helping
each other out for coursework, projects and ideas. Only about a quarter of the students think
their peers are very competitive.
There is some tendency for satisfaction with the interpersonal climate to be lowest for
first-year students and higher for more advanced students, although the relationship does not
seem to be linear; that is, once beyond the first year, satisfaction does not necessarily increase
with each year in the program and may be more dependent on the particular group of students
involved.
IIE-176