The Sum of All Parts: Enhancing the Value of Campus Climate Surveys by Including Faculty and Staff Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Campus climate surveys to assess relationship violence and sexual misconduct typically focus only on students’ experiences, but faculty and staff both experience sexual misconduct and have unique perspectives on campus climate. By sharing one campus’ experience incorporating faculty and staff into a true campus-wide climate survey, we highlight the importance of hearing from all voices and the steps necessary to adapt typical climate survey methods.

Method

We drew on community engagement and survey design frameworks to guide our process of creating a faculty and staff climate survey at one large, public university.

Results

We present key insights from our process of survey design, implementation, and dissemination, and describe lessons learned by engaging with faculty and staff constituents during each of these phases.

Discussion and Conclusion

Surveying faculty and staff, sharing the results, and working collaboratively to identify reforms is essential for building institutional trust and improving campus climate.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate surveys
• sexual violence
• campus
• higher education
• sexual harassment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.