Frost Center for Data and Research is a social science research center at Hope College.

In addition to Hope data and research, we utilize faculty expertise, student researchers and our professional staff to conduct community-based research with non-profit, for-profit and government organizations. Frost Center is home to Institutional Research, data stewardship and assessment for student learning.

Frost Center is named for Dr. Carl Frost, a leader in applied social science research.

Frost Center History
In the late 1980s and beginning with a gift from the Herman Miller Company, then-President Jacobson proposed an opportunity to strengthen undergraduate social science research at Hope College. This research center would be named for Dr. Carl Frost, a leader in applied social science research known for his work with the Scanlon Plan Associates and participatory management. CEOs of several West Michigan companies, Scanlon Plan members with whom Dr. Frost had worked with, provided their financial support in recognition of the importance of Dr. Frost's work in their businesses and support of undergraduate organizational research in the profit and non-profit sectors. Frost Center for Social Science Research began operations in September of 1990.
Frost Center Colloquia

Frost Center Colloquia provide opportunities for the Hope community to learn about and discuss the most recent data analyses, surveys and other research completed by Frost Center. We invite the community to gather two or three times each semester for data sharing, conversation and discussion of how we can use these results to inform our work and continuous improvement for the benefit of our students. Hope staff and faculty, working in small groups, identify how they can use the information shared that day in their own work, how it can be used to continuously inform decisions that benefit our students and Hope College, and how others at Hope would benefit from receiving the information.

Materials from our most recent Frost Center Colloquia are available below.

Upcoming Frost Center Colloquia

  • April 18, 2024 — First Year Retention Risk Analysis

Previous Frost Center Fridays

February 1, 2024

Frost’s Future Toward Flourishing
How the Frost Center can support your work at Hope and promote college-wide flourishing

November 9, 2023

Building Your Grant Writing Skills

October 5, 2023

Accelerating Your Scholarly Research Program

September 14, 2023

Frost Center Fellowship Research Colloquia

March 10, 2023

Critical Thinking Skills among Hope Students
An examination of critical thinking skills of first- and senior-year students using results from the ETS Critical Thinking Assessment and NSSE data.

November 18, 2022

Hope Student Retention and Persistence

September 30, 2022

Meet the Incoming Class of 2026

April 1, 2022 

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) 2015–2020

February 25, 2022

Supporting Academic Success with Data from Hope's Incoming Student Survey

December 10, 2021

Cross-Cultural Engagement among Hope Students

October 15, 2021

Culture and Inclusion Pulse Survey: 2021 Staff and Faculty Results

September 17, 2021

Six Months Out: Results from Hope’s Graduate Survey

Dr. Carl Frost
Dr. Carl Frost was a leader in organizational psychology and during his academic career was affilitatied with MIT and Michigan State University. His role at MSU was teaching organizational psychology and providing extension services to rapidly expanding Michigan industries. He did this by bringing his students into the field as he worked with companies in West Michigan. Dr. Frost developed and used the Frost/Scanlon approach. D.J. DePree, the founder of Herman Miller, and CEOs of other major West Michigan corporations were proponents of Dr. Frost's work and approach to participatory management. The Frost/Scanlon EPIC Principles (Equity, Participation, Identity, and Competence) and their associated processes formed the basis of creating better workplaces.
Frost Center Fellowship

Frost Center for Data and Research offers a research fellowship for Hope College faculty members. Frost Center Fellows complete their social science research, or interdisciplinary research connected with a social science, while supporting the center with data analysis, research design, participation in Hope College and community-based research, or other data and research activities applicable to the fellow’s expertise.

Fellowships are awarded for one or two concurrent semesters and provide:

  1. Course release commensurate with the plan of work
  2. $2,000 in research funding from the McGregor Fund
  3. Support from Frost Center Research Assistants

Eligible applicants include Hope College tenured or tenure-track faculty members and faculty not on a tenure-track with at least four consecutive years in a (non-visiting) faculty contract.

Fellowship proposals are welcomed by January 12 for the 2024–25 academic year.

Information about the Frost Center Fellowship

How to Become a Student Research Assistant

Interested in data or research? Frost Center Research Assistants are directly involved with survey development and administration, data collection, analysis, creating data dashboards and other projects that support the Frost Center mission. Student Research Assistants work 8 or more hours each week in partnership with our professional staff working on:

  • Survey design in Qualtrics
  • Data cleaning and organization
  • Summary statistics and quantitative analysis using SPSS
  • Qualitative data content analysis and coding
  • Updating and maintaining accuracy of records in the Assessment Portal
  • Creating data dashboards in Tableau

If this sounds like something you would be interested in doing or would like to learn more, contact us at frostcenter@hope.edu or view the Research Assistant position description.