Initial Voice of the Corps survey results highlight potentially serious issue for the Corps at VMI

In the February 11, 2022 issue of The Cadet, we launched the "Voice of the Corps Survey". This is a short survey for current VMI Cadets conducted by The Cadet newspaper. Although the survey is currently ongoing and requires more respondents to obtain a final validity, responses to date reflect overwhelmingly strong support for The Cadet newspaper. There are also some serious concerns at VMI. The following are high level results to date.- 100% of the respondents believed that The Cadet newspaper, in its current independent cadet-run form, represents the voice of the cadet, either all of the time or some of the time. The vast majority of respondents feels that the Administration excludes Cadets from decision-making either mostly or all of the time - A majority of respondents, 81.8%, feel that this year is somewhat or much worse than last year. Only 9% feel that this year is somewhat better than last year. - When asked whether the decisions made by the Administration represent the voice of the Cadet, an overwhelming majority, 88%, reported that the decisions either mostly do not or definitely do not. The other 12% of the sample reported that the Administration's decisions are hit-and-miss in terms of representing the Cadet. - When asked if the publications put out by Communications and Marketing accurately reflect cadet life, almost half or 44% report that they sometimes or mostly do not. Another 47% saw this reflection as hit or miss. - In a related question, respondents were asked whether the publications by Communications and Marketing accurately convey cadet grievances. The responses were overwhelmingly negative, with 85% reporting that the publications mostly or all of the time do not. - When asked if they agree with the Board of Visitor's (BOV) decisions to change the Honor Code System, two-thirds or 67% indicated they do not agree. - Asked whether Cadets are able to voice their displeasure with how VMI is run, 73.5% reported they are not able to while 23.5% reported positively. - Asked whether planned changes to the Ratline will offer an improvement, virtually all respondents, 97%, indicated that it may or definitely will make the VMI experience worse. - When asked if Cadets are able to voice their displeasure with changes to the Corps system, an overwhelming majority, 88%, indicated that they are not. - In the open-ended question asking respondents to state the worst decision the Administration has made this year, the most frequent response was concerning the Ratline and weakening its integration with the Honor system. Another respondents described negative changes concerning schedules. Other poor decisions were those concerning handling of COVID and changes to the Honor System. - When asked about the best decision made by the Administration this year, by far the most common response was nothing, none of the above, or "I can't think of one good thing." A scattering of responses involved changes to scheduling, clothing for PT, and going back to in-person classes. The Cadet is currently working through some obstacles from VMI policies and practices that inhibit survey distribution and response collection. We are not allowed to use the Corps wide email to reach the corps or incentivize surveys. Because of this we are offering a $100 amazon gift card to be awarded to one Cadet in barracks at random who takes the survey. This will be awarded the Friday following Spring Break. We are continuing to collect responses for final publication in a future issue. The Voice of the Corps Survey run by The Cadet staff is fully compliant with Federal and industry best practice Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols and received IRB review. IRB review and compliance by the administration's survey is not publicly available. Cadets can take the survey online using the survey link at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/cadets. Cadets can also access the survey by scanning the QR code in this week's edition of The Cadet. Those cadets desiring to complete the survey in hard copy can complete the insert in this week's edition of The Cadet and return it to rooms 107, 230 OB or 386 NB. Contact: jmansfield@cadetnewspaper.org, Sextonpb@cadetnewspaper.org and info@cadetnewspaper.org with any questions.