Sense of Belonging

Strategic outcome

Increase in number of students who feel a positive sense of belonging.

Definition for sense of belonging

• Sense of belonging refers to students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by and important to the group (e.g., campus community) or others on campus (e.g., faculty, peers) (Strayhorn, 2018 ¹)

Measures:

Overall sense of belonging

• How much do you feel that … (scale: not at all, a little, somewhat, quite a bit, a great deal)
  • … you are valued as a person by this institution? ²
  • … you are accepted as part of the campus community? ³
  • … you have a group, community, or social circle at UW­–Madison where I feel I belong (feel at home, known, connected to, supported in my identity)? ⁴
  • … you belong on this campus? ⁵

Program/service impact on sense of belonging

• How much dose [department staff] make you feel … (scale: not at all, a little, somewhat, quite a bit, a great deal)
  • … welcome?
  • … respected?
  • … there are people here who really care about you?

Footnotes

[1] Strayhorn, T. L. (2018). College students’ sense of belonging: A key to educational success for all students (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315297293

[2] Collected in NSSE (freshmen and senior, every 3 years), MSL (a representative sample of undergraduates and School of Pharmacy students; every 3 years, 2021, 2018, 2015, 2009)

[3] Collected in MSL

[4] Collected in Healthy Minds (half of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students; every 3 years, Sp 2022, Sp 2019), ACHA-NCHA (about 12,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students; every 3 years, Sp 2021, Sp 2018), AlcoholEdu (all incoming degree-seeking undergraduates, every semester), Our Wisconsin (all incoming degree-seeking undergraduates, every semester)

[5] Collected in MSL, Campus Climate Survey, Healthy Minds, ACHA-NCHA, AlcoholEdu, Our Wisconsin