This report contains a compilation of data collected and summarized using a number of assessment sources. They include: a mail survey of UMass Amherst employees, a phone survey of a sample of UMass Amherst undergraduates, focus groups and interviews with UMass Amherst employees, and institutional data. The following is a discussion of the methodologies for the mail survey, the phone survey, and focus group data collection efforts.

Employee Survey
The four-page, scannable employee survey was developed by the Student Assessment, Research, and Evaluation Office (SAREO) in collaboration with the various CDSJ teams. While Academic Affairs did not participate in the initial development of the survey, the team adapted the instrument for its use.

In October, 2002, SAREO sent the survey via campus mail to all graduate student, classified, professional, and faculty employees in Academic Affairs. The survey packet included a cover letter from the Provost, a survey, a return postcard and a return envelope. To ensure respondent anonymity, the surveys had no identifying marks or numbers printed on them. In order to facilitate follow-up with non-respondents, employees were asked to mail to SAREO the coded postcard separately from their completed survey.

SAREO and the Provost Office sent multiple postcard and e-mail reminders to all potential participants to facilitate a high response rate. In addition, SAREO sent a second survey packet to all non-respondents. Problems emerged with the graduate student mailing addresses and mailbox locations provided by institutional data sources. Inaccurate and/or missing addresses made survey and reminder delivery difficult. SAREO made a special effort to rectify this problem by visiting many academic departments in person to facilitate survey delivery. Academic Affairs CDSJ team members also contacted many department chairs to encourage their help in increasing graduate student participation. Despite these extra efforts, however, the graduate student response rate is considerably lower than that of any other employee category (see Table 5). For this reason, results for graduate student employees are treated separately in all analyses included in this report.

With the exception of the graduate student results, these response rates are satisfactory for making inferences to the employee population as a whole. There is variability, however, in response rates for classified, faculty, lecturers, and professional staff by Academic Affairs departments (see Table 6) with some units having close to 100% participation and others showing less than a third of employees participating. Despite these departmental differences, overall respondents are relatively representative of the population of academic affairs employees on employee status, gender, and race/ethnicity (see Table 7). The results within each employee type category are similar to those presented in Table 7. In all cases, the primary difference between respondents and non-respondents is that female employees were somewhat more likely than male employees to complete the survey.

The last section of Appendix A provides descriptive information about the survey respondents. In addition to information about UMass Employees that is readily available (e.g., school/college affiliation, job classification, age, length of service), the employee survey provides a more detailed picture of the diversity present within the UMass Amherst community. The survey results offer an expanded perspective on racial/ethnic identity, gender identity, religious affiliation, disability identity, and sexual orientation.

Table 6. Response Rates by Department
(Departments of 10+ Employees Only, Excludes Graduate Students

Response Rate >=90% xxxxx xxxxx >=80% >=70% xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx >=60% xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

xxxxx Department Library - Administrative Services Commonwealth College Provost's Office Undergraduate Registrar Communication Disorders Dean - Engineering Dean - Natural Resources & Environ. Food Sciences Theater User Support Services Library - Collection Management Comparative Literature Graduate Registrar International Programs Research & Instructional Services Education Policy, Research and Admin. Chemical Engineering English Music & Dance Teacher Education & Curriculum Studies Student Development & Pupil Pers. Serv. Veterinary & Animal Sciences Biostatistics & Epidemiology Dean - Humanities & Fine Arts Political Science Physics Landscape Architecture & Reg. Planning Sports Studies Psychology Asian Languages & Literatures Economics Germanic Languages/Lit Nutrition Sociology xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Response Rate >=50% xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx >=40% xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx >=30% xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

xxxxx Department Geosciences Academic Support Eng MISER Dean - Management Chemistry Undergraduate Adv & Acad Support Ctr. Dean - Education Afro-American Studies Dean - Natural Sciences & Math Entomology Communication Anthropology HRTA Computer Science Microbiology Accounting & Information Systems Exercise Sciences History Polymer Science & Engineering Civil & Environmental Engineering Fine Arts Center Natural Resources Conservation Finance & Operations Management Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Spanish & Portuguese UMass Transportation Center Biology Plant and Soil Science Biochemistry/Molecular Biology Art MA Small Business Devel. Center Resource Economics Marketing Nursing Linguistics Astronomy Electrical & Computer Engineering Management Mathematics & Statistics

Undergraduate Student Survey

During Spring semester, 2003, the Community, Diversity and Social Justice (CDSJ) Initiative commissioned SAREO to conduct a telephone survey focusing on undergraduate students' classroom experiences and other student life issues. Students were queried about their experiences with unfair treatment in the classroom, their experiences with unfair treatment at their campus job, the impact of their UMass courses on their skill development, the frequency with which they interact with students of other races and ethnicities, and their experiences with racial profiling on campus. Interviews were conducted on the evenings of March 25th and 26th, and April 1st, 2nd, 8th, and 9th. A primary objective of the study was to determine whether students' experiences varied by race/ethnicity. Consequently, stratified random sampling was employed in order to obtain sufficient numbers of respondents in each racial/ethnic category to allow for inter-group statistical comparisons. Across all racial/ethnic groups, the response rate was above 65 percent (see Table 8), which is particularly good for this type of survey.

Focus Groups and Interviews

A set of Focus Groups was conducted during the Spring and Summer of 2003 to provide a richer understanding of the results emerging from the survey data analysis.

The following focus groups were conducted, each comprised of five to ten participants:

• Female classified staff
• Male classified staff
• Female Faculty Members
• Faculty and Staff of Color