Oregon State University faculty and staff are invited to participate in this year’s Community Climate Survey that got underway Tuesday. The survey is administered every two years to gauge the opinions and perceptions of employees regarding their OSU experience.
“The survey is one part of OSU’s broader efforts to create and sustain an inclusive and equitable university climate,” said Interim Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Scott Vignos.
“Insights gained from prior community climate surveys have been used to identify factors that contribute to employee belonging (and lack thereof), gauge awareness and effectiveness of support resources at the university and improve our bias incident response process,” said Vignos. “Insights gathered from the survey have helped university leaders develop proactive strategic plans to address equity and diversity, galvanized the President and Provost’s Leadership Council for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s work around employee retention, and oriented colleges and units towards local strengths and needs.”
OSU faculty and staff will receive an invitation to participate in the survey via email.
The survey is anonymous and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and will remain open until June 3. The Office of Institutional Diversity is administering the survey and securely storing responses.
OID and partner offices will analyze the results of the survey during the summer and release a report to the university community outlining trends and findings in fall 2022. Interactive dashboards that allow disaggregation by unit and comparison over time will be made available to unit leaders to inform strategies and efforts to improve community climate. Results from prior surveys are available here: https://diversity.oregonstate.edu/climate-assessment
To motivate participation, a $25 incentive will be provided to 50 randomly selected survey participants. The information participants enter for the incentive will not be linked to responses to the survey to ensure responses remain anonymous.
The last faculty and staff community climate survey was administered in spring 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting.
“We didn’t have much opportunity to adjust the survey at the time,” Vignos said. “This year’s survey seeks to specifically identify the impact of the pandemic on faculty and staff so we can gain insight moving forward.”
Vignos said he hoped that a wide swath of OSU employees participate, especially historically underrepresented groups.
“We think it’s an incredibly important tool to better understand the perspectives of OSU’s employees,” Vignos said. “We’re particularly hopeful that employee communities that are not always well-represented at the university will take the survey so that we can better understand their experiences and needs, including faculty and staff of color, queer and trans faculty and staff, faculty and staff with disabilities and faculty and staff who work outside of Corvallis or in rural areas of the state.”
Questions about the survey can be directed to OID at [email protected].
“The community climate survey is one of the most important ways we have to identify ways to improve community climate for all OSU employees,” Vignos said. “The survey is completely anonymous and we hope this provides an opportunity for faculty and staff members to share their honest experiences. We’re also grateful for the time faculty and staff spend completing the survey and look forward to sharing results back in the fall.”
~ Theresa Hogue
