The University of Michigan will launch an all-staff survey this month, the first of three universitywide surveys aimed at gauging the climate around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
All-student and all-faculty surveys will be administered in the fall, with ADVANCE partnering on the faculty efforts.
The survey, which is a component of the university’s five-year DE&I strategic plan, will help the university develop scientifically valid statistics for measuring the campus climate as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The goal is to repeat the survey throughout the five-year plan to measure the progress of previously established goals.
The confidential, web-based survey will be open to staff from March 28-April 18, and will take about 15 minutes to complete. To ensure the confidentiality of the survey, it will be administered by the independent, third-party Ann Arbor research firm SoundRocket. No one at the university will have access to any identifiable information from participants.
Robert Sellers, chief diversity officer and vice provost for equity and inclusion, oversaw a similar sample survey that was administered to 3,500 students, 1,500 faculty members and 3,500 staff members this fall in order to collect university-level data. Analyses of those surveys are currently underway.
Sellers is hopeful that full participation in the upcoming all-staff survey will go a long way toward making the campus more diverse, equitable and inclusive, primarily by providing a better snapshot at unit-level data.
“It’s important to collect this data because it will allow us to see, at a unit level, where we should best allocate our resources. We’re constantly looking for ways to make this campus better for everyone, so hearing directly from the staff about what impacts them within their school, college and unit is the best way to determine what we’re doing well and how we need to improve upon the things we’re not doing so well,” Sellers said.
“This survey will give us a baseline measure from each of the 49 units, allowing us to track and measure our progress over time.”
Questions for the survey were developed over the course of the past year by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in consultation with a faculty advisory committee and a student-staff advisory committee. Experts from the campus community and survey research experts from the university’s Survey Research Center also collaborated on the development of the survey.
Results from the survey will be shared widely with the campus community and will help schools, colleges and units create a base level of statistics for measuring climate in their environments. It will also provide insight into key issues that warrant further, deeper levels of assessment.
To thank survey recipients for their time and consideration, they will be entered into a random drawing to win one of 50 $50 VISA gift cards.