Mason COACHE FAQs

George Mason is fully committed to using this data to improve the workplace for faculty. The survey is only the first step in a multi-year process design to transform data into actionable policies and practices. With the results in hand, we will be sharing findings broadly and working with you to build concrete action plans for leveraging areas of strength and for improvement.

George Mason’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning can also do analysis of the individual-level data, but only aggregate results are shared with administrators and faculty, and only when there are a sufficient number (at least five) of responses to protect the anonymity of respondents. This allows George Mason to run nuanced reports, in addition to the summaries provided by COACHE.

The COACHE Faculty Satisfaction Survey will be administered every three years so that we can learn to what degree the actions we have taken have influenced your experience as Mason faculty. Our goal is to make George Mason the best place for faculty that it can be.

In addition to providing George Mason with survey reports, Harvard COACHE works with faculty and institutions across the country to answer broader research questions about faculty and campus culture issues. To learn more, please visit https://coache.gse.harvard.edu/research.

The survey takes 20-25 minutes to complete. We recognize that your time is extremely valuable; please be assured that your investment in completing this survey will help George Mason identify what you might need to do your best work at Mason. Data from the COACHE study will be meaningful only if we have broad participation.

COACHE collects data confidentially, only using identities to send reminders to non-respondents, which are not revealed to George Mason. Data are analyzed by the COACHE team at Harvard and the George Mason COACHE Leadership Team receives the institutional summary report with aggregate findings to be shared with the campus community. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning (OIEP) leadership are data administrators for this project at George Mason and receive the data in de-identified form. These records are held in OIEP and no one in a supervisory or evaluative capacity will have access to individual responses.

For additional information, please visit the Harvard COACHE Faculty FAQ page.

Only George Mason’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning will have access to the individual level, de-identified data.

The aggregate results are available behind a firewall, behind which faculty and staff may access summary reports and survey data on the OIEP website and follow instructions to log in with George Mason NetID. Only aggregate results are shared with administrators and faculty, and only when there is a sufficient number (at least five) of responses.

The COACHE data includes a Benchmarks Dashboard that offers a summary of all responses sorted by “divisional analysis,” which is the school/college. However, the Benchmarks Dashboard is organized by broad disciplinary categories, which may or may not perfectly align with a school/college. School/college reports are available behind the firewall. 

OIEP may accept requests for specific analyses on a limited basis. Please contact John Dooris to learn more.

The COACHE Faculty Satisfaction Survey is different from the Gallup FSE Survey. The COACHE survey questions are grounded in faculty-specific work-life themes, such as tenure and promotion, resources and support, departmental quality and collegiality, shared governance, interdisciplinary work, mentoring, appreciation and recognition, and more. The COACHE questions highlight issues, concerns, and accomplishments unique to instructional/research (I/R) full-time faculty and their academic units; thus, only full-time I/R faculty participate. The COACHE analysis also includes comparisons to peer institutions, so we learn how George Mason is doing in relation to other universities who complete the survey.

The Gallup FSE Survey addresses questions specifically written to measure engagement in work life, in addition to asking about your general well-being, inclusion, and flexible and remote work. The survey is for the entire Mason community of faculty and staff, full-time and part-time.

Both the COACHE Faculty Satisfaction Survey and the Gallup FSE Survey are tools to identify and celebrate areas of success across George Mason and provide guidance on areas for growth.

Please visit the Harvard COACHE Faculty FAQ page or email Faculty Affairs and Development.