Best questions for college undergraduate student survey about campus safety

Here are some of the best questions for a college undergraduate student survey about campus safety, plus tips on how to create them. With Specific, you can build a tailored survey in seconds that feels like a real conversation—no spreadsheet or form hassles.

The best open-ended questions for a campus safety survey

Open-ended questions are essential when you want to hear students’ unique perspectives in their own words. They work best when you’re looking to uncover context, stories, and nuances behind students’ experiences—especially for sensitive or complex topics like campus safety. These questions let students raise issues administrators might not even be aware of, and they’re a core part of any effective survey.

1. Can you describe an experience when you felt unsafe on campus? What happened?

2. What measures do you think would improve safety for students on campus?

3. How well do you think the campus security team responds to potential threats or emergencies?

4. Are there particular locations on campus where you feel less safe? Please describe them and why.

5. How do you typically find out about safety incidents or alerts on campus?

6. Have you or someone you know experienced any form of harassment, stalking, or bullying on campus?

7. In your view, how well does the college handle reports of sexual assault?

8. What resources or support systems do you think are missing or underused when it comes to campus safety?

9. How confident are you in reporting a safety concern? What could make this process better?

10. If you could change one thing about campus safety, what would it be and why?

Letting students speak freely in their responses can surface patterns you might otherwise miss—like the fact that only about 10% of campus sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement, which points to barriers or worries about reporting. [1]

Top single-select multiple-choice questions for campus safety surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions are your go-to if you want structured, quantifiable feedback that’s easy to analyze at scale. They help you spot trends and quickly see how students feel—often the best starting point for sparking more detailed follow-up questions. For college undergraduates, these questions work especially well when you want to measure the prevalence of common experiences or surface quick yes/no/maybe-type responses before digging deeper.

Question: How safe do you feel walking alone on campus at night?

• Very safe

• Somewhat safe

• Somewhat unsafe

• Very unsafe

Question: Have you ever reported a safety concern or incident to campus security?

• Yes

• No

• Prefer not to say

• Other

Question: Which area of campus do you feel is least safe?

• Residence halls

• Parking lots or garages

• Academic buildings

• Outdoor common areas

• Other

When to followup with "why?" If someone selects “Somewhat unsafe” for how safe they feel at night, hit them with a gentle “Why do you feel that way?” or “Can you tell us more about that experience?” It turns a numeric answer into rich, actionable insights—for example, learning that poorly lit walkways or isolated areas are key concerns, which is backed by the stat that only 67% of students actually feel safe walking on campus at night. [2]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? “Other” is crucial whenever your list of options may not fully cover every student’s reality. Asking a follow-up if someone picks “Other” often uncovers surprising pain points—maybe it’s a spot you hadn’t considered, or a safety issue that’s only just emerging on campus. Prompting for details here gives you an edge in addressing safety proactively.

Should you use NPS in a campus safety survey?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) was designed for understanding loyalty, but it’s surprisingly powerful in the campus safety domain too. You simply ask: “How likely are you to recommend our college as a safe campus to study on, from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely)?” Why does this work? Because it reframes safety as a shared reputation and measures overall confidence. Pair this with a follow-up: “What’s the main reason for your score?” and you can uncover what students value most—or where trust breaks down. If you want to try it, you can easily add a campus safety NPS question to your next survey and see what patterns emerge.

The power of follow-up questions

Open answers are great—but what if a student says, “Yeah, I feel safe… I guess”? Without a follow-up, that feedback is vague and hard to act on. That’s why we built automated AI follow-up questions directly into Specific. Our AI picks the perfect, natural follow-up in real time, every time, just like a human expert would. It saves hours you’d otherwise spend emailing students to clarify, while making the conversation feel smooth and organic—like a real chat.

• College undergraduate student: “The parking lots are kind of sketchy.”

• AI follow-up: “What specifically makes the parking lots feel unsafe to you?”

• College undergraduate student: “Campus events feel weird sometimes.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share more about what feels off during campus events?”

How many followups to ask? In our experience, two to three targeted followups per question strikes the right balance: deep enough to find real insights, without bogging down the conversation. You can always allow students to skip to the next section once you’ve got the info you need—we let you customize this flow in Specific’s settings.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of dry forms, students are engaged in a real conversation. This keeps them interested, and gets you better, richer data.

AI response analysis—qualitative made easy: Even with all this unstructured text, it’s easy to analyze responses with AI, spot themes, and summarize findings instantly.

These AI-powered followup questions are new—try generating your survey and see just how much deeper your feedback can go.

How to prompt ChatGPT for better campus safety survey questions

If you want to use ChatGPT or any advanced AI survey generator to brainstorm questions, it all starts with a good prompt. Try this first:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for college undergraduate student survey about campus safety.

You’ll get even better results if you give more background, goals, or the context behind your survey:

I'm designing a survey for undergraduate students at a large urban campus to improve safety. The goal is to identify pain points, evaluate current resources, and gather actionable feedback. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that explore perceptions of safety, reporting, and satisfaction with measures in place. Avoid generic or superficial questions.

To organize your ideas, then prompt:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Next, pick categories you want to dig into and go deeper with:

Generate 10 questions for categories 'Reporting Experiences' and 'Perceived Safety Hotspots'.

Using these prompt strategies with the AI survey builder saves time and surfaces stronger, more insightful questions.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a natural chat, not a stuffy questionnaire. Every answer guides what the AI asks next, letting students share their real thoughts as you probe gently for clarity or emotion. This is very different from a manual form—you’re not stuck with fixed follow-ups or rigid logic, but get dynamic, tailored prompts.

Here’s how they compare:

Why use AI for college undergraduate student surveys? You get smarter, more comprehensive feedback—especially crucial when tackling campus safety issues like sexual assault, theft, cyberbullying, and hate crimes, all of which have significant impacts on students’ daily lives. [1][2][3] AI survey examples driven by Specific’s engine are more conversational and flexible, making the feedback process smooth, intuitive, and accessible right from your phone or laptop for both survey creators and students.

If you're curious how to set one up, check out our step-by-step guide to survey creation—it’ll give you tons of useful tips and context.

See this campus safety survey example now

Start gathering honest, nuanced feedback with a conversational survey that asks smart follow-ups and analyzes responses instantly. Get richer insights, all in one engaging experience—see how easy it is to get started.