Inside Iowa State

September 10, 2004

Campus climate survey work extended to November

by Annette Hacker

President Gregory Geoffroy has reviewed a draft report of a campus climate survey and instructed project consultant Susan Rankin to share initial results. Rankin also will invite further input from the campus constituent groups who participated in the survey last winter. She will publish a final report in November.

Approximately 8,300 faculty, staff and students were contacted to participate in an online survey; more than 1,900 respondents completed the 64-question survey.

The survey project was recommended to Geoffroy by the President's Advisory Committee on Diversity, and coordinated by a subcommittee of that group. The intent of the project is to gauge the campus climate for how well diverse groups feel included in the larger university community.

Carla Espinoza, assistant vice president of Human Resource Services, director of Equal Opportunity and Diversity and the subcommittee chair, said the timeline includes focus group sessions for key audiences surveyed and a campuswide forum in October. Dates and locations haven't been set yet.

Rankin's final report is expected to include recommendations for strategies to enhance Iowa State's campus climate. The President's Advisory Committee on Diversity will then develop the campus master plan on diversity in February 2005, and the plan will be shared with the campus community before the end of the academic year. The diversity plan will be highlighted in Iowa State's 2005-2010 Strategic Plan, which is being developed.

For updates and information about the climate survey, go to: http://www.iastate.edu/~aao/
eod/diversity.shtml.