The Senior Year Committee was constituted by Provost Mahler in the fall of 2004 and
met regularly late that quarter and throughout the winter quarter of 2005. The special
impetus for the formation of this committee was concern raised by results of the National
Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which revealed a pattern over several years of
Kalamazoo seniors rating the college particularly low, compared with the ratings of those
at other four-year liberal arts colleges, in the composite measure of “supportive campus
environment.” The recommendations that follow are organized around a set of problems either directly
identified by seniors or inferred by the committee from listening to seniors and to one
another.
