University of Wisconsin Julie Furst-Bowe & Meridith Wentz Co-chairs Inclusive Excellence Committee January 2011 Climate Assessment Project Overview

Project Background Tier III UW-Green BayUW-MadisonUW-Platteville UW-Stout UW-Superior Tier II UW-Eau ClaireUW-ParksideUW-River FallsUW-Whitewater Tier I UW-La Crosse UW- Milwaukee UW-CollegesUW-Oshkosh UW-Stevens Point

Why Conduct a Climate Assessment? To foster a caring campus community that provides leadership for participation in a diverse, multicultural world. To create a welcoming and respectful environment for all students and employees To improve the environment for working and learning on campus.

Campus Climate & Students How students experience their campus environment influences both learning and developmental outcomes. Discriminatory environments have a negative effect on student learning. Research supports the pedagogical value of a diverse student body and faculty on enhancing learning outcomes.

Campus Climate & Faculty/Staff How employees experience the campus environment influences both productivity and satisfaction. Discriminatory environments have a negative effect on employee engagement and well being. Research supports the value of a diverse student body and faculty/staff on enhancing quality of work life.

Project Objectives Provide participating institutions with information, analysis, and recommendations as they relate to campus climate. This information will be used in conjunction with other data to provide participating institutions with an inclusive view of their campus.

Projected Outcomes Participating institutions will add to their knowledge base with regard to how constituent groups currently feel about their particular campus climate and how the community responds to them Participating institutions will use the results of the assessment to inform on-going work regarding diversity

Assessing Campus Climate Rankin & Reason, 2008 What is it? Campus Climate is a construct Definition? Current attitudes, behaviors, standards and practices of employees and students of an institution How is it measured? Personal Experiences Perceptions Institutional Efforts

Survey Instrument Instrument developed by Susan Rankin, Penn. State University, from a meta-analysis of diversity assessments from 35 institutions Final instrument Customized language for UW System institutions Quantitative questions and additional space for respondents to provide commentary On-line or paper & pencil options Sample = Population = ALL students, faculty, staff

Survey Responses Survey was reviewed and approved by UW-Stout Institutional Research Board All responses are confidential All data analysis will be completed by Susan Rankin Campus will receive a report of institutional results and overall results from all participating campuses

Survey Timeline Survey begins: January 17th, 2011 Survey ends: February 15th, 2011 Results available: August/ September 2011

How to Participate Website: Paper copies available: Those interested in paper surveys can pick them up at the Applied Research Center (15 Administration building). They will also be available at a session later today. Surveys will be administered in classes on Monday, January 24 th, and Wednesday, January 26 th, from 9:05 to 10:00 AM – volunteer instructors needed!

How Results will be used for Improvement To identify action items for our Inclusive Excellence plan To identify potential university priorities to achieve our FOCUS 2015 goal on diversity To share drill down information at the college/unit level for college/unit initiatives To identify initiatives to achieve our Growth Agenda goals To share with committees responsible for: race/ethnicity, LGBTQ, women, persons w/disabilities to suggest initiatives that could be incorporated into university action plans

Questions..? Other Ideas..?

Keynote Address: “ Creating Communities of Respectful Engagement”  Is society becoming more uncivil?  Research on the increasing numbers of uncivil behaviors on college campuses  Strategies for dealing with incivility and creating a more respectful campus

About our speakers… Dr. Elizabeth Holloway is a professor and psychologist with over 25 years of experience as a practitioner, trainer and consultant. She has held faculty appointments at the Universities of California, Utah, Oregon, and Wisconsin-Madison and is currently at Antioch University. Dr. Holloway has published extensively and consults for a large number of organizations. Dr. Mitchell Kusy is a professor in the Ph.D. program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University. Dr. Kusy was head of leadership development for American Express and director of organization development at Health Partners. He has written several books on leadership and also consults for a number of organizations.