Staff members from several SRS offices are joining forces this year to prepare the campus for an unprecedented survey to gather data that will inform how the university could improve our culture and build a greater sense of belonging among students, faculty and staff.
“Having a sense of belonging is, perhaps, the most powerful indicator of how valued and included students, faculty and staff feel at CU,” said Teresa Wroe, senior director of education and prevention and deputy Title IX coordinator for the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC). “It’s pretty intuitive. The more students, faculty and staff feel like they matter and are treated as fully respected members of our campus community, the less likely they are to depart to pursue academic, research and career goals elsewhere.”
When it rolls out in October, the Campus and Workplace Culture Survey will ask students, faculty and staff on all four CU campuses to respond to a range of questions about belonging, academic and workplace culture, incivility, and protected-class harassment (including sexual harassment) and discrimination. Students will also receive the sexual misconduct module covering sexual assault and exploitation, intimate partner abuse and stalking. The survey builds off of CU Boulder’s 2014 student Social Climate Surveys focusing on classroom, academic, campus and living climates and the campus’s 2015 Sexual Misconduct Survey.
Staff from OIEC, the Office of Data Analytics (ODA) and Strategic Relations and Communications (SRC) will be leading the charge on the Boulder campus and will be working collaboratively with key campus stakeholders, including the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement (ODECE). The survey will be conducted on all four campuses under the leadership of Chief Diversity Officer Theodosia Cook at the behest of the CU Board of Regents, said Julie Volckens, OIEC’s director of assessment.
“This comprehensive survey belongs to the whole university, and it will provide reliable data for understanding the extent to which students, staff and faculty feel respected, supported and valued at CU and how their experiences differ by gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity,” Volckens said.
In fact, the 2021 survey will provide benchmark data in support of the Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan and will be administered every four years in the future to provide evidence of progress toward meeting the goals of creating a more inclusive campus community.
OIEC and ODA began to develop and refine the survey in 2016, and more than 3,000 students, staff and faculty participated in a three-year pilot to test and refine it. In 2019, the campus integrated the final survey into the Academic Review and Planning (ARPac) process. To date, it has been administered to 15 academic departments, the professional schools/programs, and all research institutes with participation rates over 50% (and among faculty, over 70%).
CWCS Survey – Frequently Asked Questions