Workload and Health at Mudd (WHAM)

Shanahan center

In response to concerns over work-life balance at HMC, the Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC) designed the Workload and Health at Mudd (WHAM) study to gain a more accurate estimate of out-of-class workload for HMC students.

In fall 2017, the 305 Mudders who agreed to participate received a link to a short survey via email at the end of every week that asked the amount of time they spent outside of class on each of their courses, how they felt about each their courses, and whether they had time for hobbies, sleep and other aspects of wellness. This allows us to understand how workload ebbs and flows over the course of the semester for HMC students, how this ebb and flow impacts students and if there are differences based on other relevant dimensions. Visit WHAM FAQs for more detailed information about study methodology.

The TLC, working with the Faculty Executive Committee, has created this webpage to share information and findings with the HMC community as they become available. Results shared here are subject to ongoing verification and refinement. As HMC continues conversations about workload and health at HMC, it is our hope that the information shared here can be used to inform and deepen those discussions.

The TLC wishes to express our sincere gratitude to the hundreds of Mudders who took the time to complete the survey each week. Your voices matter and, thanks to you, we have information that will be used to make the HMC community stronger and better for all. We also wish to thank HMC alumni Emi Reed ’17 and Kharisma Calderon ’18, who helped conceptualize this study and made sure it would resonate with and reflect the realities of HMC students; the dean of faculty for funding the survey incentives and Pomona College’s Information Technology Services for their assistance with Tableau. Finally, we wish to thank Chukwudi Oguejiofor for his extraordinary efforts in helping us visualize the data you see here.

Inquiries can be directed to Chief Communications Officer Tim Hussey at thussey@hmc.edu.

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