Survey Results

The St. Thomas Aquinas Surveys

The St. Thomas Aquinas Surveys were developed in order to collect information from the parishioners in support of the effort of the Parish Pastoral Council to develop a strategic plan for the parish. Two surveys were developed, one for resident parishioners and one for Purdue University students. Each survey was broken into seven sections; general questions about St. Thomas Aquinas, questions about the liturgy, questions about the physical facilities, questions about educational programs, questions about service programs, questions about stewardship, and classification questions. The surveys consisted of multiple choice questions and free response questions.

The Student Parishioner Survey Click Here

The Resident Parishioner Survey Click Here

*** to download the free adobe acrobat reader, click here

Survey Results

The surveys were distributed on-line and by paper copy during the period April through July, 2004. Approximately 250 resident parishioners and 170 students responded to the survey. The reduced results are available on the following links.

The Student Survey Reduced Results Click Here

The Summary of Students' Free Response Sections Click Here

The Resident Parishioner Reduced Results Click Here

The Summary of Resident Parishioners' Free Response Sections Click Here

*** to download the free adobe acrobat reader, click here

Draft General Conclusions of the Surveys

The Strategic Planning subcommittee of the Parish Pastoral Council has drawn the following preliminary conclusions from the survey results:

There is a high level of overall satisfaction of the survey respondents with the programs of St. Thomas Aquinas with many positive suggestions for improvement.
The student parishioners desire more connection with the resident parishioners and a greater sense of community.
Religious education programs at all levels need some attention in our strategic plan.
The physical facilities of the parish are judged to be satisfactory except for the lack of air-conditioning in the summer.
There is untapped willingness to support the parish financially and through voluntary activities.
The satisfaction level for the availability of reconciliation and other sacramental preparation is not as high as the satisfaction level for many of the other programs at St. Thomas Aquinas.
Many consider the parish to be large and impersonal and do not feel connected.

The planning committee will use these conclusions and other information collected from interviews and peer evaluations to develop a strategic plan for St. Thomas Aquinas. These conclusions and the plan will be vetted with the Parish Pastoral Council, the staff and the parish in general at town hall meetings.

St. Thomas Aquinas Planning Committee

Bob Bernhard, Chair
Dave Wirth, President, PPC
Ron Campbell
Linda Day
Roxanne Drnevich
Brian Graefnitz
Logan Jordan
Fr. Steve Kuhlmann, O.P.
Leslie Lewis
Kyle Murphy
Katrina Olek

E-mail comments to the Planning Committee or Fr. Dan Davis, O.P. please put "Survey Comments" in the Subject box of your e-mail.