Students hoping to score tickets in UF's football lottery will need to enter more than just a credit card number this year.
To be eligible for football tickets, students must take the Student Experience in the Research University survey, or SERU, which will ask students about their academic experience, social activities and further career goals.
The survey, which can be taken online through ISIS, will begin March 16 and will take about 25 minutes to complete, wrote Marie Zeglen, assistant provost and director of Institutional Planning and Research, in an e-mail.
Students can complete SERU in one sitting or break it up into sessions.
According to Zeglen, there will also be questions about civic engagements, student development and student services.
"The survey will help UF leaders and administrators learn more about the undergraduate student experience on campus," Zeglen wrote. "Actions can be taken in areas where students express less satisfaction."
Unlike other types of surveys, SERU will get feedback from the majority of the UF population instead of just a sample, because all undergrads will be required to take the survey.
Graduate students and incoming freshmen are exempt.
"Academic departments will get extensive feedback from their student majors," Zeglen wrote. "Many of these colleges and departments have not had this type of detailed feedback."
A similar survey was created by the University of California at Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education in 2003 and was used by eight Californian universities, Zeglen wrote.
In 2008, the University of California invited other colleges to administer the survey.
UF, along with five other schools including the University of Michigan and Rutgers University, took them up on the offer.
"Best practices can be shared among all the universities administering the survey," Zeglen wrote.
Zeglen wrote that students taking the survey should know there are more benefits than just being eligible for football tickets.
"SERU is not just a survey," she wrote. "It's your vote."
