April 30, 2018
To the Campus Community,
A year ago, we began the process of transparently sharing data about our campus climate. Our abridged report shed light on campus experiences across undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, and faculty. We released unit reports this past January to prompt conversations within executive areas, schools, and colleges about areas they need to improve to move us toward our aspirational campus climate. Now, we are ready to embark on a deeper dive that shares the detailed experiences of each segment of our campus community.
The final campus climate reports review data that is unique to each population (undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, and faculty) and provide the opportunity to learn about the daily experiences of our campus community in their own words. The reflections are, at times, sobering; we have work to do to create an environment that is respectful and inclusive for all. These reports will inform the planning we will do over the summer as units identify local goals to join with campus-wide strategies that will be basis of our revisions to the Diversity Strategic Plan, which will guide our future efforts.
The survey was conducted in November 2016 and, in the past year alone, we have made significant strides. We awarded more than $20,000 in funding for Campus Climate Improvement Grants, assembled a team of Campus Climate Ambassadors to engage the campus community, and hosted over 100 Campus Climate Conversations. If you were unable to participate in a conversation, but have ideas that you would like to share, there is an opportunity for your voice to be confidentially heard now through May 15. We also launched the Building Bridges initiative, which sought to draw on the power of solidarity and creat ive expression to bring people together across race, religion, class, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, nationality, and more.
We have made institutional investments to strengthen our human resources function and are working with our related services to better respond to the needs of our staff, faculty, and students when unfair treatment occurs. In the coming year, we will unveil new initiatives informed by your extensive input to foster an inclusive campus climate, in our workplaces and classrooms. One step you can take right now is to treat one another with dignity and respect, and to ask questions to learn more about what respect looks like to your colleagues or fellow students.
It is my hope that you will continue to thoughtfully engage with this data and discover new ways in which we can together enact change.
Sincerely,
Enobong (Anna) Hannah Branch, Ph.D.
Associate Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion, Chief Diversity Officer
