John Steele Grant Recipients

Past Recipients:

2017

Julia Panke-Makela
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Julia is currently the Associate Director for Assessment and Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The John Steele Grant will allow Julia and her colleagues; Albert Kim, BS, Graduate Research Assistant, The Career Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sarah K. Barks, PhD, Director of STEM Career Community, Center for Careers, Life, and Service, Grinnell College, Jason Eckert, PhD, Director, Career Services, University of Dayton, Jim McAtee, MBA, Director, The Career Center, Ball State University and Noah Pollock, MS, Assistant Director of Assessment, Oakland University, to conduct their study, “The Salary Puzzle: A Multi-Institutional Study of Salary Data Collection on First Destination Surveys.”

Julia and her colleagues have planned a multi-institutional study of salary responses on first destination surveys that examines data from 2015-2016 bachelor’s degree graduates, across all academic majors. De-identified datasets on all graduates who reported full-time employment will be collected from Midwest institutions. (We have 5 participating to date, and are currently reaching out to a few more this month. We’re open to including as many as 10.) Variables will include demographics (e.g., gender, ethnicity, citizenship, age), academic background (e.g., major CIP Code, GPA), and salary. Carnegie classification characteristics of each institution will also be considered. Statistical analyses will be conducted to examine relationships among variables.

The findings from their study will inform their understanding of the quality and depth of data gathered about salary on first destination surveys. Julia and her colleagues will gain insights into which graduate populations are both well-represented and poorly-represented, which informs them about how the current analysis may be skewed or biased. This may also suggest future research directions for engaging populations that are poorly-represented, in order to better understand reasons they do not respond to salary questions. These investigations could enhance future first destination survey data collection.