New campus surveys were presented to students last week by the Institute for Public Good showcasing where Davidson students stand regarding free expression, political belonging and the Honor Code. The surveys found a significant decline in student trust in the Honor Code and major partisan differences in comfort expressing political views. 

The results come from two major surveys: the National Survey of Student Engagement, which looks at Davidson students’ academic and social experiences in comparison to peer institutions, and the Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory Plus, a campus specific survey that looks at  how students perceive academic integrity, free expression and campus climate.

Both surveys help provide a look at where students stand regarding ideas about Davidson’s culture and how it could be improved.

“We can’t just govern on vibes,” said Chris Marsicano, director of the Institute for Public Good. “We can’t make lives better without knowing where the pain points are.”

One of the “pain points” is the growing discourse around what classroom dialogue should look like. While 82% of students said professors should be allowed to teach polarizing ideas in most circumstances, the data also displayed big gaps in student’s comfort speaking up themselves. Conservative students, in particular, reported significantly lower levels of comfort when expressing their views in class compared to liberal students.

Marsicano said this is not necessarily evidence of censorship but of self-restraint. Students, he explained, are often afraid to speak up for fear of social backlash. “They are afraid to say something unpopular, regardless of whether they’re on the right or the left.” 

Harry Carter ’28, Vice President of the Student Government Association, said the findings were both encouraging and concerning. “There was a lot of good data about the way students feel, especially compared to peers,” Carter said. “But that massive gap between liberals—around 70% comfortable speaking their mind—and conservatives—around 20%—is really worrying to me.”

Carter hopes the numbers will lead to more structured campus conversations through the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative and other forums that allow for disagreement without division. He also acknowledged that it is a difficult issue to solve through administrative action.

“I hope things like the Institute for Public Good and DCI initiatives stuff that kind of address this a little bit more administratively. It’s hard because […] it’s a cultural thing and I don’t know how much they’re able to change that through policies, but I think it does open a lot of doors for people to interact more with the IPG, which I’m excited about,” Carter said.

The surveys also looked into student trust toward Davidson’s Honor Code. A depletion in trust was found, with 67% of students agreeing that campus academic honesty policies effectively stop cheating in 2025, down from 86% in 2022.

Marsicano said that drop showcases a need for more campus dialogue about the Honor Code. “I am troubled by the reduction in belief in the Honor Code,” he said. “I look forward to further conversations with students of all stripes on how to bring those numbers back up to their pre-COVID highs.”

 Associate Dean for Institutional Effectiveness Brent Maher said the surveys are still in the sharing phase. “At the moment, it’s at the point of sharing it so that it can inform decisions, but no decisions have been made yet from this data,” Maher said. 

Maher’s office is circulating results among faculty, staff and students to raise awareness and spark discussion before policy responses are drafted.

Maher explained that there are plans to increase response rates for future surveys by investigating participation timing and incentives, in the hopes of gathering stronger data. “We were a little late in the year on the PSRI Plus, and so we’re hoping to do that earlier, maybe around February,” Maher said. 

For Carter, the challenge for these surveys lies in visibility; he hopes that efforts to showcase the data to students continue. “It’s a problem a lot of the time when [the administration] try to bring stuff to students,” Carter said. “They just don’t do it through the right avenues or the right times.”

As Davidson continues its efforts through the Institute for Public Good and Deliberative Citizenship Initiative, the hope is that data like this will not just look at campus culture as it is but also help drive new ideas on how to build it.

“We now know which students feel unwelcome, and we can start working on bringing the college to them in new and meaningful ways,” Marsicano said.