Survey: Diversity Good For ISU, Climate Needs Work


by Diana Pounds

Faculty rated the climate for diversity at Iowa State as 
somewhere between fair and good in a survey conducted in 
November 1993.

The Steering Committee on Diversity coordinated the survey to 
ascertain the university climate and provide a baseline from 
which to measure future changes in that climate. Officials 
anticipate repeating the survey in 1996.

Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed said they believed 
diversity is good for Iowa State and should be actively 
supported.

A majority also said they believed colleagues in their 
departments had a strong desire to develop a climate that 
supports diversity. However, only 36 percent said they felt 
ISU had achieved a positive climate for diversity.

The survey revealed a number of differences between female 
and male faculty perceptions of the Iowa State climate. 

For example, twice as many women (37 percent) as men (18 
percent) said they had experienced discrimination at Iowa 
State in the past five years. And while two-thirds of male 
faculty said they felt their research was valued in their 
departments, only one-third of female faculty held that view.

Percentages were much more evenly distributed when faculty 
were asked if their departments valued their approach to 
teaching. Approximately 70 percent said "yes," with female 
and ethnic minority faculty returning only slightly fewer 
positive responses than other faculty.

Survey responses from the ethnic minority group generally 
reflect the views of Asian Americans, who made up 
70 percent of the group and who tended to view the climate 
for diversity more positively than other ethnic minorities. 
Because of the small number of survey respondents in the 
other minority groups -- African Americans, Hispanic 
Americans and Native Americans -- the data for those 
individual groups is statistically unreliable. But the 
African Americans surveyed generally viewed the climate for 
diversity less favorably than the other minority faculty.

When asked to rank a number of activities that might improve 
the climate at Iowa State, faculty gave top ratings to 
bringing more visiting scholars from under-represented groups 
to campus. Next in the ranking were providing faculty/staff 
exchanges with historically black and women's colleges and 
including issues of diversity in faculty, staff and student 
orientation programs. 

"On the positive side, the survey shows that the overwhelming 
majority of faculty believe diversity is important to Iowa 
State and ought to be encouraged," President Martin Jischke 
said. "But it also shows that we have some work to do to 
achieve a truly welcoming campus environment, one that 
provides our students with the rich educational experiences 
that spring from a diverse mix of people and ideas.

"In the past few years, we have made a start by bringing 
visiting scholars from minority groups to campus, holding 
workshops on mentoring minority faculty and teaching diverse 
student bodies, giving faculty more opportunities to add 
diversity to their curricula, putting more funds into 
recruiting women and minority students and faculty, and 
conducting surveys like this one. We are studying the results 
of the survey to develop additional initiatives for improving 
the climate at Iowa State."

Rab Mukerjea, chair of the Diversity Steering Committee, said 
analysis of two other campus climate surveys -- one of staff 
and the other of students -- should be completed in early 
summer. The complete report of the faculty survey of the 
campus climate is available in various administrative offices 
and on reserve in Parks Library.

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contact:  Diana Pounds, (515) 294-4845
updated:  5-26-95