Here are some of the best questions for a Community College Student survey about campus safety perception, plus tips to craft impactful feedback prompts. You can build this survey in seconds using Specific.
Best open-ended questions for community college student surveys about campus safety perception
Open-ended questions dig beneath the surface—they let students voice what really matters to them, beyond a simple yes or no. They’re perfect when you want richer context or are exploring new issues with no clear answers yet.
What are your biggest concerns about safety on campus?
Can you describe an incident when you felt unsafe at our college?
What areas on campus do you consider least safe, and why?
How do you think the college could improve student safety?
Have you ever witnessed or experienced a crime or safety issue here? Please share details if comfortable.
What do you think about the visibility and accessibility of campus security staff?
How do your personal characteristics (e.g., gender, race, age) affect how safe you feel here?
Are there any resources you wish existed to help you feel safer?
How confident are you in reporting a safety issue, and what would encourage you to report more?
In your view, what is the top change that would have the biggest positive impact on campus safety?
Well-crafted open-ended questions surface the real stories behind the stats. For example, while 82% of college students express concern about personal safety, open responses explain why—and how to address these worries. [1]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for campus safety perception surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal if you want clear, actionable data or want to get students talking by lowering the response burden. They quantify how students feel—plus, short option lists get conversations started with less effort.
Question: How safe do you generally feel when on campus?
Very safe
Somewhat safe
Somewhat unsafe
Very unsafe
Question: Which campus crimes are you most concerned about?
Robbery
Physical assault
Theft
Sexual offenses
Other
Question: Do you know how to contact campus security in an emergency?
Yes
No
Not sure
When to followup with "why?"—Whenever a choice alone isn’t enough. If a student selects "Somewhat unsafe," always follow up: "Why do you feel somewhat unsafe when on campus?" This moves from ticking a box to actually understanding concerns.
When and why to add the "Other" choice?—Sometimes real insights don’t fit the pre-defined list. Adding "Other" lets students describe unique concerns. With smart follow-up questions, you can uncover trends you hadn’t thought of, such as new hotspots or overlooked safety issues.
It's worth noting that many students identify specific crimes as major concerns; for example, 67.9% of community college students fear robbery, and 55% fear physical assault. [2]
Using NPS to measure campus safety perception
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for products—it’s a powerful way to benchmark campus safety perception. By asking, “On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this college to others based on your sense of safety on campus?” you get a simple, trackable score. Detractors, passives, and promoters each tell a unique story, and AI-powered surveys like Specific can tailor smart follow-ups for each.
You can generate a campus safety NPS survey in one click, then analyze which safety factors drive low or high ratings.
Surprisingly, only about one-third of students fully trust their campus security staff—knowing the “why” behind their NPS rating is vital if you want to move that needle. [4]
The power of follow-up questions
If you want richer, more actionable feedback, automated follow-up questions make all the difference. At Specific, we built our platform to use AI so that follow-ups always probe deeper based on the student’s answers. If the respondent says something unclear, the AI acts like an expert interviewer who says, “Tell me more about that,” leading to insight that’s impossible to capture in static forms.
Student: “I feel kind of uneasy at night.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share what situations at night make you feel uneasy on campus?”
Without the followup, you'd get vague answers and miss the real risks or improvements needed.
How many followups to ask? In most cases, two or three follow-ups are enough to gather deep context. With Specific, you control settings to skip to the next question once the main point is clear—flexibility meets respect for the respondent’s time.
This makes it a conversational survey, where each student’s voice shapes a more natural, engaging dialog than old-fashioned survey forms.
AI survey response analysis—Even with loads of open-text feedback, AI makes it a breeze to analyze responses: summarize, surface trends, or even chat about the raw data. Qualitative doesn’t mean messy or slow—just smarter.
Follow-up questions in real time are a relatively new superpower in surveys. Try generating a survey on Specific and see how seamlessly it works for exploring campus safety perceptions in depth.
How to prompt ChatGPT (or other AI) for campus safety perception survey questions
If you want to use large language models like ChatGPT for idea generation, try this prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Community College Student survey about Campus Safety Perception.
You’ll get stronger results if you add context—here’s a better version:
I am an administrator at a mid-sized community college. Student safety is our top priority after a recent increase in reported incidents. Please suggest 10 open-ended survey questions to deeply understand student perceptions, fears, and recommendations regarding campus safety.
Once you have draft questions, ask:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, focus on any important theme by prompting:
Generate 10 questions for categories reporting and trust in security staff, and suggested improvements.
Iterative prompting helps you refine the question set and hit every angle with your AI survey builder.
What is a conversational survey?
Most traditional surveys feel like filling out tax forms: static, tedious, unlikely to inspire openness. Conversational surveys—like those you create with an AI survey generator—feel like smart, empathetic interviews. The AI adapts its questions, probes for more detail, and keeps every student engaged, which upgrades both the quantity and quality of feedback.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Takes hours to write, test, and revise | Survey built in minutes with expert-level AI guidance |
Fixed questions, no context-driven followups | AI followups probe unique details in real time |
Low engagement (static forms) | High participation (feels like chat) |
Manual review and slow analysis | AI summarizes and analyzes qualitative data instantly |
Why use AI for Community College Student surveys? Because AI adapts to students’ answers, responds conversationally, and makes it fast to collect + analyze rich feedback—the perfect fit for dynamic, sensitive topics like campus safety perception. The difference is especially stark in semantic understanding: when you run an AI survey example using Specific, the platform handles both question design and analysis for you.
Specific stands out for best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys. Both students and admins find the feedback process smooth, mobile-friendly, and naturally engaging—way ahead of old forms or static tools. See our detailed guide on creating these surveys for more tips.
See this campus safety perception survey example now
Get actionable insights from your students faster and with less effort—experience how conversational, AI-powered surveys surface what really influences campus safety perception on your campus.