Daughter currently working on the orientation pack for Purdue (101) to start in the Fall. She showed us some of the questions in the BEVI that seem inappropriate- I’m not sure if everyone gets the same questions or if they are randomly generated. You answer them in a “strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree” buttons. There is no ‘neutral’ button. Questions include:
“AIDS may well be a sign of God’s anger”, “Women are more emotionally dependant than men”, and “a man should act like a man”. Did anyone else come across these types of questions in the BEVI section? Is this indicative of Purdue’s culture?
Tagging @momofboiler1.
What’s the BEVI section?
BEVI stands for Beliefs, Events, Values Inventory assessment.
Purdue’s website says “it is an assessment used widely across the Purdue West Layfayette campus to measure development of intercultural competence, critical thinking, emotional resilience, attitudes towards the environment and gender and more.”
Yikes. My S24 is going there for a summer engineering program in a few weeks and that is VERY disturbing information. I guess this will just be an interesting intro for engineering and we will move on from there. No way he’s going to some place for college that asks these questions.
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I don’t remember my D having to do that survey but I will double check with her.
Purdue skews conservative.
I’d also have your student reach out to the university to ask what the information is being used for and if they are uncomfortable with the answer, just opt out of taking it.
Paging @RichInPitt who has a current student on campus.
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My daughter did call the Purdue 101 hotline yesterday and spoke with a student employee. The student (girl) said that she did not recall questions like this and referred my daughter to an admin employee to call back on Monday.
From Purdue’s website Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory | CILMAR
Feels like a personality test of some type whereas the students answers are shared in a broad platform where faculty and admin subscribe (for a fee) to data mine the info. The video on the page talks about (what sounds to me) a psychological report that students receive back based on their answers and that students retake the test in their senior to see “how much they have changed”. I think the whole thing is weird and I wonder if Purdue sells this data to other universities and institutions.
We are going to sit down together and see if she is able to skip some of the questions she finds uncomfortable or if she can opt out of this altogether this weekend.
When I first looked at this, I wondered if the questions were randomly generated or skewed to a certain region (we live in CA) - but I’m not sure after visiting the Purdue webpage. I would love to hear from any other S27 parents whose student is/ has completed Purdue 101.
Appreciate all the CC community 
It was the first place I thought to check when this came up yesterday
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It’s none of Purdue’s business how your daughter feels about any of those questions. Don’t answer them.
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Is it mandatory the student do this survey?
This is deplorable. I would send to the provost and ask “why” or just don’t answer them but something is amisss here.
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Update: we all sat down yesterday and went through the questions together. Each page has 20 questions and once you answer a question, you cannot delete your answer. Once you save a page and move to the next page, you cannot go back and change any answer. We learned that you can skip questions (or entire pages) and she was able to complete the BEVI - although she ended up skipping most of the questions. (She did get a message window at the end saying that because so many questions were not answered, they were unable to generate a results report for her (who cares…). We are relieved that she was able to complete this part of Purdue 101, but it has left a bad taste in our mouths about the school, which is a shame. I thought I would share more questions that we found to be ridiculous to ask a freshman girl-
- “women have a lot of trouble making up their minds”
- “some women ask to be harassed because of the way they dress”
- “it would be wrong to dress a boy in pink”
- “sometimes men feel weak, just like women”
- “men are naturally more competitive than women”
- “women aren’t ambitious enough to succeed”
- “even though we expect them to be, men are not really built to be faithful in marriage”
- “one or more persons in my family was physically, sexually, or emotionally abused” (not sure how you answer some of these “yes or no” type questions with their 4 choice matrix)
Another thing about the format of the survey - the questions were not arranged by a topic (you can see a theme of men v. women stereotypes, but they were peppered throughout and since you can’t go back to adjust answer based on a different question, it felt very off putting.
There are some seemingly more “typical” questions you would expect like “I feel bored at times” or silly “beings from another planet have helped our species” but she found it easier to skip the page instead of trying to be thoughtful about any of the questions.
Any other Purdue freshman (or parents) seeing these types of questions on their BEVI survey? I’m also curious if any other universities are using this BEVI survey as part of their orientation packet as well.
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Is this created by Purdue or some third party company? I really do not see any purpose in this questionnaire. And many of the questions seem to just reinforce stereotypes and tropes. I agree it’s off-putting.
Wow! those questions are crazy.
BEVI seems to be a third party organization, but the use of their psychological profile survey seems entirely inappropriate in a college setting (and frankly, I’m not sure in which setting these questions would be appropriate).
Disgraceful that Purdue would allow this into their orientation packet. The DEI thought police are running amok in academia. Be vigilant. We are being manipulated everywhere we turn
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I don’t assume that this survey is attributable to DEI thought police, nor that it is for the purpose of manipulating people. I’m about as liberal as they come, and I don’t like the sound of this survey and would advise my child not to complete it. I’m guessing the people on this thread who are opposed to the survey come from a spectrum of political leanings.
I don’t know who made this survey or why. They may have bad intentions (like selling stuff). They may have good intentions (learning about the incoming class, or trying to help students consider a variety of viewpoints), but it’s been VERY poorly implemented.
I’m assuming good intent on Purdue’s part - but have they said how they use the results of this questionnaire?
Not sure if I can post these links. If not please clean up.
From the MSU ASSESSING EDUCATION ABROAD OUTCOMES: posted below.
"The BEVI is an assessment measure used in a wide range of applied settings, evaluative contexts, and research projects.
The BEVI seeks to understand “who the person is” prior to participating in an experience, “how the person changes” as result of the experience, and how these factors interact to produce a greater or lesser likelihood of learning and growth, i.e. “who learns what and why, and under what circumstances.”
Overall, the BEVI asks extensive background and demographic items along with validity and process scales in order to assess variables that may influence or shape both the processes and outcomes of international or multicultural learning."