The power of promotion and collaboration: Northern Michigan University’s approaches to increase NSSE response rates
By: Mya Jo Hurtado, NSSE Institute Graduate Assistant
Northern Michigan University (NMU), a four-year public university in Marquette, Michigan, with more than 6,500 undergraduate students, has participated in nine administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). During the 2023 survey, NMU recorded response rates of 24 percent for first-year students and 30 percent for seniors. In 2025, those rates rose to 42 percent and 41 percent, respectively, thanks to innovative promotional efforts led by Ryan Poupore, the institutional researcher who oversees NSSE within NMU’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness (IE).
Poupore set a personal goal to improve response rates in every survey cycle. “I just try to do the best I can, and I usually try to beat what I’ve done previously,” Poupore stated. “If we had 25 percent in the previous cycle, I’ll try to get at least over that.”
Traditionally, like many institutions, NMU promoted NSSE primarily through email. For the 2025 cycle, however, the IE office decided to try some different approaches. “Every cycle I try to think of a different outreach method,” Poupore expressed. “I always like to try something different just to see if it makes a difference.”
One of these new approaches the office tried out included setting up informational tables across campus during the NSSE survey window to provide students with survey details, raise awareness, and answer any questions they had.
The IE office also partnered with the IT department at NMU to build a secure and accessible system to make participation easier. With the new joint system, students could scan QR codes placed around campus that linked directly to a page where they logged in with their university credentials and were automatically routed to their personalized NSSE survey link. Poupore emphasized that this system helped engage students who might not have participated otherwise.
“We wanted to provide students the opportunity if they’re walking around on campus, and they look at one of our digital bulletin boards, or if they’re looking at one of the posting sites that has a NSSE poster that we designed,” Poupore noted. “At that moment, they have a little bit of time, maybe they’re in between classes or maybe they’re done with classes for the day, and they have 10 to 15 minutes to take the survey, and that’s the chance, you know, that’s the opportunity right there.”
Speaking of the posters Poupore referenced, they were another collaborative effort between the IE office and NMU’s student activities department. The student activities department allowed the IE office to display large-format posters at major posting sites outside the campus theater and several athletics buildings. In addition to the posters, the student activities department also helped the IE office inform various student groups that NSSE was approaching and promoted it on The Hub, NMU’s student activities website.
Beyond the collaborations with IT and student activities, the IE office also expanded its outreach and promotion by partnering with other departments across campus. For instance, Poupore reached out to the department heads across NMU to ask that instructors dedicate a few minutes of class time for students to complete NSSE. He also teamed up with academic advising to distribute informational postcards about NSSE during advising sessions. Residence life was another valuable partner. The IE office encouraged resident advisors and resident directors to mention NSSE during floor meetings to help spread the word.
Together, NMU’s promotional strategies and campuswide collaborations created multiple opportunities for students to engage with the survey, which was key to their increased NSSE response rates.
