Beginning Feb. 9, Syracuse University will be implementing a campus climate survey to all students, faculty and staff measuring how happy, comfortable and generally satisfied they are with life at SU.

A committee of 14 administrators, with assistance from Rankin & Associates Consulting — a firm that specializes in climate surveys — built the survey that will be distributed online and in paper form in several areas of campus. The groups will then use the survey responses to determine what initiatives the university can pursue to maximize campus satisfaction.

“A happy campus is one where people feel welcomed, valued and can pursue their education and dreams,” said Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, co-chair of the Climate Assessment Planning Committee.

 

When the survey closes on March 11, Rankin & Associates will comb through the data, write a report on its findings and present the report to the survey committee for review, said Libby Barlow, assistant vice president for institutional research and assessment at SU and another co-chair of the committee.

Exactly how one measures satisfaction in a campus community can be subjective, said Barlow. She added that the measure of satisfaction in a campus community also depends on what the members of the community prioritize.

“The key aspects (of a happy campus) are the aspects that the people in this community tell us are important,” Barlow said. “Part of what we’re doing is finding out what is important to the people who are here.”

Under New York state’s “Enough is Enough” law, all colleges are required to conduct climate surveys measuring the sexual and relationship violence experiences of students, faculty and staff, said Katelyn Cowen, director of the Office of Health Promotion at SU and a member of both the survey committee and the Chancellor’s Task Force on Sexual and Relationship Violence.

The survey will not only focus on sexual assault and relationship violence, Cowen said, but will be much broader, focusing on the campus’ climate as a whole and considering a wide variety of social and cultural aspects of campus life.

The survey will partly look into experiences students, faculty and staff may have with instances of bias, stereotyping and harassment surrounding topics such as race and sexual orientation.

Cowen added that the committee hopes to hear from marginalized communities on campus.

The survey was developed in response to a suggestion from the Chancellor’s Task Force on Sexual and Relationship Violence, and has been in the works for many months, beginning back in spring 2015, Barlow said.

Barlow added that Rankin & Associates Consulting starts building a school’s survey with a basic outline, which is then reviewed, administered to focus groups and tailored to fit each university as specifically as possible.

Rankin & Associates Consulting has conducted climate surveys on nearly 170 college campuses nationwide. The firm’s diverse experience was a main reason why the university hired the firm, Barlow said.

When the survey opens, it will be available on an online server owned and operated by Rankin & Associates.

One notable feature that sets the climate survey apart from other surveys is that all findings will be made open to the public, said Jonathan Schmidt, the Student Association representative to the survey committee.

The results of the survey are public, but the answers provided by students, faculty and staff will maintain anonymity.

“Built into the whole process, it’s guaranteed that initiatives are going to be taken,” Schmidt said. “We’ll take the results and develop about three specific policies looking at the results.”

Schmidt acknowledged that students in particular are sometimes skeptical of the practicality of surveys, but insisted that the data taken from the climate survey was not going to go to waste.

“A lot of times people say, ‘Oh, these surveys don’t actually do anything,’ but for this one, it’s guaranteed that there are going to be tangible outcomes,” Schmidt said.

Cowen also urged the community to set aside time for the survey.

“As a committee, we’ve all really been actively trying to get the message across … that this is a really unique opportunity in a survey, in that it is going out to everybody,” Cowen said. “It is really all about voices being heard.”

Published on February 2, 2016 at 11:40 pm

Contact Bridget: blmcalli@syr.edu