Questioning the Survey

I just filled out a 66 question survey from my employer about my job satisfaction, and it was pretty thorough, but a few things stood out:

• The timing--just a day or two after it was announced that the current budget crisis (induced by Quebec's own budgetary mismanagement) has produced a big cut in teaching assistantships and will also starve us of administrative support.  
• So many questions, but none that really allow us to consider how happy we are with the explosion of senior admin positions (Vice Principals [Vice Chancellors/Presidents], Vice Provosts, Associate VPs, etc) and all the admin costs that come with those positions.  I wonder if any of those are getting cut?  Probably not since people who make the decisions will not cut their own budgets--a universal problem.
• A very small comment box at the end.  It might be an infinite box in terms of how much can be squeezed into it, but the way it looks on a webpage discourages extensive commenting.

However, it was pretty good otherwise.  Asking about a lot of things that are challenges for McGill, like how much stress educational choice is here.  And that is HUGE right now, as the parties are battling over how best to exclude immigrants from English-speaking schools.  Much of this recent storm happened while I was out of town, but I am just catching up now.  Paying for private school to get my daughter into English schools (with a heavy French component) may not be within my rights in the next year or two, depending on how much the Liberal party wants to alienate a core constituency that cannot go anywhere else.  And, of course, we have no access to the public English system because we are immigrants.  But that is a rant for another Spew.

Given my current circumstances, it was actually fun to answer the survey.  But it was pretty striking that the final questions (demographic ones) could make it quite clear to the survey-processes exactly who I am (what department? age? gender?).  Good thing I have tenure.