UW Climate Survey — Please Participate – Closes on 11/8/19

By now, all UW students, staff, and faculty should have received an invitation to participate in a system wide UW Climate Survey. The purpose of the survey, according to President Cauce, is “to make our University a more equitable working and learning environment that allows everyone to reach their full potential.”

Some of us at the SSW have already completed the online survey, which takes about 15-20 minutes and covers a range of questions about inclusion and diversity on campus, sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, and other topics. The survey items were informed in part by 42 focus groups of UW faculty, staff and students that were held in April.

Some of the questions prompt participants to provide a fair amount of personal information (for example, gender/gender identity, political party affiliation, race/ethnicity, political views).   Rickey Hall, UW Vice President for Minority Affairs & Diversity, explains why this information is being sought:  “… This information, optional in the structure of the survey, is critical to the assessment of campus climate because the identities individuals hold factor heavily into matters of inclusion, exclusion, and sense of belonging or lack thereof. Any campus’ climate is at its core an amalgamation of intersubjective experiences, so to understand it requires that we develop an informed understanding of what shapes the experience of each of us.”

UW leadership has strong confidence in the safeguards and processes in place to collect, store, analyze, and ultimately use these data. All responses will be securely stored on a non-UW, off-site server hosted by Rankin and Associates, the survey company selected by the university for this project. Rankin and Associates has a strong reputation for securing and safeguarding survey data, and has co-designed over 190 similar climate surveys with other U.S. colleges and universities.

Given the sensitive nature of some survey questions, we want to remind you that your participation is optional and confidential. You may skip any questions on the survey (including demographic and background information).  Private, supportive follow-up upon request, and all UW employees should feel free to complete the survey during working hours.

But given the importance of the goals of the survey and the important data it will yield, we also want to encourage you to complete the UW Climate Survey.  The School will have access to our own aggregate data (no personal identifiers), for our own planning purposes.

As a school community, we are strongly committed to sustaining and growing a positive, equitable, diverse and inclusive climate here at the School. Through a tool such as the UW Climate Survey, we will have confidential information from our own students, staff, and faculty to guide our efforts for social justice in the School community.

For updated background information about the climate survey, check this linkhttps://www.washington.edu/uwclimatesurvey/faq/

The survey will close on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8 at 11:59 pm PST

If you have any questions about the climate survey, feel free to contact Kalei Kanuha at kanuha@uw.edu.

Comments