Position: Senior Institutional Research Analyst, Office of Institutional Research and Planning

Length of service: Since March 1998

Residence: Highland Park

How she got here: Coryell earned her undergraduate degree in sociology at San Jose State University in California, where she ran the sociology research lab. She did post-master’s graduate work at the University of Washington in Seattle. “I was naturally drawn to statistics,” she says. Coryell then worked for five years at a major public opinion research group in Seattle. “It was very fast paced,” Coryell says. “Someone would call in on Monday, and they would want to have results of a survey in a matter of days. I had to learn how to run surveys in a deadline environment.” Coryell also worked for 10 years at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, where she ran the data collection center of that group’s cancer prevention research unit. But she yearned for change. “I had lived most of my life in California and Washington, but I always wanted to live on the east coast,” she says, and so she made the move to Rutgers.

For her health and enjoyment: Dance is one of Coryell’s passions. After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes six years ago, she took up line dancing for health reasons. “Dancing is great exercise and it’s fun,” Coryell says. “It has allowed me to avoid having to take medication to control my diabetes. I do it all through diet and exercise.” What started as a way to get regular exercise has become an integral part of her life. “The dancing we do is not what people think of when they see line dancing on TV,” she adds. “We don’t just dance country music; we also include hip-hop and progressive jazz, even waltzes.” She dances several times a week and travels all over the country on weekends to line dancing gatherings that have can have as many 600 attendees. “Choreographers come and teach workshops, and evening dances usually last from three to four hours. She does not compete as a dancer, however. “I don't think a hobby should become work,” she says.

An important resource: The Office of Institutional Research and Planning in Geology Hall on the Old Queen’s Campus is an invaluable resource for the Rutgers community. “In many cases, people who come to the office looking for help with research surveys often are surprised to find we already have what they were looking for. It’s often already been collected,” Coryell says. The office compiles state and federal statistics and admission placement testing for all the campuses. Its mission is to collect and analyze data and offer assessment, planning, and support services. Coryell says, “We provide information that the senior administration, academic deans, and other administrative offices need to carry out their functions.”

What she does: Coryell’s main job is to develop surveys and coordinate research that examines opinions and preferences of Rutgers faculty, students, and staff. The office administers annual surveys to first-year students, upper-division students, and graduating seniors asking about their expectations of Rutgers and their experiences. “We ask about the level of interaction they have with faculty, their relationships with advisers, to rate the quality of various services, and their perceptions about student life,” Coryell says.

Gathering impressions: “One of our main survey tasks is to gather students’ impressions,” Coryell says. This includes a survey of incoming first-year students, a graduating-senior survey, and a Ph.D. exit survey, to name just a few. “We’ve worked with other universities, such as Berkeley and Princeton, to develop the Ph.D. survey so we can compare ourselves to similar universities,” Coryell says. The survey asks those completing their doctoral education about their programs: what worked and what didn’t. Questions address their relationships with their dissertation adviser and other faculty, the quality of instruction, the level of financial support, and impediments to progress toward earning their degree. Some of the surveys touch on sensitive information. These include surveys of the campus climate on race relations and gender perceptions. “We also did a survey for the president concerning academic integrity with a great deal of faculty input. Confidentiality and information security are key issues for the office,” Coryell says.

Active in accreditation process: The office also is very involved in preparing for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which reviews Rutgers’ accreditation every 10 years. This process has undergone significant change in recent years. “We used to compile facts, such as how many books were in the library, how many publications the faculty produced, and the like,” Coryell says. “Now it’s all about outcomes. Are students learning? What do students leave with at the end of their time at Rutgers? These are complex questions, and the commission wants to see that kind of information. There is growing concern that universities need to see how they perform on campus, state, and national criteria.”

Census-based, not random sample: The office no longer takes random samples because, Coryell says, “the response rate is terrible.” The approach is now census-based, which means the survey goes to everyone in the targeted population. “That gives everyone the opportunity to ‘vote’ his or her opinion,” she says. “The downside of that is students get a lot of surveys.”