San Jose State students, faculty members and staff now have an opportunity to take the Campus Climate Survey to anonymously express their concerns about the problems they face on campus.
Kathleen Wong(Lau), SJSU’s chief diversity officer, said the survey’s purpose extends further than diversity and inclusion.
“We’re also looking at the organizational climate as well,” Wong(Lau) said. “It addresses how people experience their relationships in the organization as well as their relationship to administration, policies, rules and resources.”
According to the survey’s definition, climate is the employee and student reaction to the inclusive environment and respect they receive toward their individual and group needs.
To help with the research and survey, members of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion have outsourced a consulting group to facilitate this survey.
“We’re not gonna know who took the survey and it’s also being housed in a separate company, so that makes it hopefully better in terms of people feeling safe to take it,” Wong(Lau) said.
The separate agency worked with the SJSU Campus Climate and Belonging Committee members to formulate several questions derived from 23 focus groups.
“You can see that we had quite an extensive committee who represent lecturers, tenure track faculty, students, a wide variety of staff and some managers,” Wong(Lau) said. “We really try to emphasize having folks who are really a lot of the frontline service people as well as people who come from very different portions of our university.”
The focus groups were composed of students, faculty members and staff who differ in identities including but not limited to ethnicities, genders, sexualities, academic backgrounds and socioeconomic circumstances.
“Our climate is really focused on the human impact that we’re experiencing by things like love and hate and inclusion on our campus,” said Ben Falter, senior student affairs case manager at the Student Wellness Center. “[We] really want people to be able to take the survey to help create a safer, more inclusive environment.”
Melissa Marston, sociology graduate student, committee member and focus group participant said the survey could identify problems or issues people face.
“It’s for everybody but it’s questioned in a way where anyone who identifies with these identities can answer it and really share it confidentially,” Marston said.
She said hours of comprehensive meetings were held to make sure every type of opinion is represented in answers available to select.
“We are a minority serving institution, so that means minorities make up the majority of students,” Marston said. “Just because we have the presence of diversity, doesn’t mean everybody’s succeeding.”
If people do not feel that the survey addresses specific problems they have, they will have a “qualitative portion” at the end to write about those concerns, Wong(Lau) said.
“We’ll get everything and a lot of people say a lot of things,” she said. “So, we’ll get all of it but also anonymize it.”
But Wong(Lau) said the experiment will not be a viable sample unless 30% of the university population participates.
The survey was launched on Feb. 25 and will be available until 11:59 p.m. on March 20.
Committee members were present at the launch event in the Student Union to address the audience about the survey and were the first to participate in the survey after their presentation.
“As an African American female on this campus, there are times when I don’t really feel like I belong to the census,” said Zeffie Bruce, academic employee relations analyst for University personnel. “[The survey] is my chance to express what is working and what is not working.”
Campus climate surveys have been administered before at SJSU in 2006, 2010 and 2015.
Many universities hold a survey every three to five years to assess university necessities, Wong(Lau) said.
“We need to have an update of a survey,” Wong(Lau) said. “So, we’re planning on doing this in another five years because it gives us time to also look at the recommendations . . . and figure out what we’re going to do and [how] to address some of the outcomes from the survey.”
Ravisha Mathur, Academic Senate chair and Belong Committee member, said she believes the 2020 survey will provide more insight and change to the university in comparison to previous studies because of “intentionality.”
Once the results are released, an advisory committee will be working alongside President Mary Papazian to look at the outcomes of the survey and identify the top priorities.
“[The consulting group] will collate the results, report the data and then come to the campus,” Mathur said. “The whole campus [will] receive all of the results at the same time, including the president.”
Contributing reporting by Briana Conte
