By Will Jackson, News Correspondent 

The 2013 Budget Priorities Survey by the Student Government Association (SGA) revealed that most surveyed students emphasized the importance of instructors’ qualities and evaluations and were dissatisfied with the lack of accessibility to NUwave in residence halls.

The Budget Priorities survey is an annual poll of what undergraduate and graduate students think their money ought to be spent on.

About 1,500 students who took the survey, representing 19 percent of the student body and a 25 percent increase in respondents over last year. The growth occurred despite Northeastern’s decision to only allow an email about the survey to be sent to half the student body. SGA President Nick Naraghi stated that this was done out of concern that the volume of emails and surveys sent out by the school was creating “survey fatigue.”

This year, the survey consisted of 11 categories, ranging from “Availability of Licensed Software” to “Northeastern Community and Tradition.” Respondents ranked the items that they felt were significant, and then answered follow-up questions regarding those items. To use an example given by Naraghi, students who selected “NUwave services” were asked about their current satisfaction with the wifi service and in what locations it needed improvement.

In order, students ranked Instructor Quality and Evaluation; Academic, Co-op, Financial Aid and Other Advising; and NUwave Services as their top three concerns.

Instructor Quality and Evaluation was the students’ number one priority. The survey data measured student awareness of initiatives taken to address last year’s results; the results revealed that only 7 percent of respondents were aware Northeastern had hired 15 new tenure and tenure-track professors. Naraghi said that the university would have to do a better job making students aware of faculty hires. He also stressed the importance of TRACE as a tool for supporting the evaluation process.

The second most significant item was Academic, Co-op, Financial Aid and Other Advising. According to the survey, 85 percent of students were “always or usually having their needs met” by academic advising availability and quality. In addition, 88 percent reported the same with regards to co-op advising, and 74 percent reported the same for financial aid advising. Respondents who were not satisfied were asked when availability needed to be improved, choosing between “evenings,” “daytime” and “weekends.”

“[Improved availability will] help to go into each of these offices or the Registrar’s to say ‘Hey, this is what is important in terms of improving the way that you’re interacting with students,’” Naraghi said.

More Northeastern students are satisfied with NUwave services in two high traffic areas–Snell Library and Curry Student Center–from 71 percent to 90 percent from last year. There was, however, noticeable dissatisfaction with wireless service in residence halls.

This sentiment was echoed by Francisco Perignon, a freshman industrial engineering major who lives in Stetson West. “I think that could really be improved,” he said, “especially in the residence halls.”

When asked whether or not he had wireless in his room, Perignon said: “Me and my roommate had to get [a router] because NUwave didn’t get there.”

Students used to have to bring their own router, which “was just across the board,” to use the Internet, according to Naraghi. Although NUwave services have been expanded over the past year, Naraghi said that some students still dissatisfied that not every building has full NUwave service and have written in the survey that the wifi needs to be improved on campus, Naraghi said.

The students’ concerns for NUwave services and other survey data will be presented to Northeastern’s Senior Leadership team on March 18. The team will give their own presentation, detailing what the university will do in response to the survey’s findings.