Campus Climate survey will commence in February
Small groups of Saint Joseph’s University students, faculty and staff came together in early October to help develop questions for a campus climate survey that will be distributed February 2018.
The survey is part of a Campus Climate Study which will analyze the campus environment, particularly how students, faculty and staff feel about inclusion and diversity on campus.
“We are working towards a positive climate for living, learning and working, and determining how people feel they belong on campus,” said Monica Nixon, Ed.D., assistant provost for Inclusion and Diversity and chair of the study. “They should feel they can bring their best selves to everything they do on campus.”
Rachel Cox ’19 is chair for inclusion and diversity on the University Student Senate and works closely with Nixon, specifically on this project.
“The Campus Climate Study is an exciting and incredibly important opportunity for students to = provide faculty and administration with honest feedback on what it is actually like to go to St. Joe’s,” Cox said. “It helps bring out experiences that maybe are not typically seen on campus and provide a space for the university to reflect and plan a course of action for things that it could improve on, what it’s doing well and what it still needs.”
Megan Lynott ’19 is a student representative on the Campus Climate Study team, which is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and staff. Lynott explained the next step for the team is to construct survey questions based on the responses from the focus groups. Lynott said she thinks the results of the survey will reveal how students perceive the lack of diversity on campus.
“I predict one significant issue that this study is going to show is the lack of racial and class diversity amongst the student and faculty populations at Saint Joseph’s,” Lynott said. “I think the issue is particularly important for the university to address because all students will benefit both academically and socially by increasing diversity in the student and faculty population.”
Nixon explained after the results from the February survey are collected, he team will pass on suggestions for addressing problem areas to The President’s Council, which is tasked with implementing any new policies and developing programs to aid areas that need improvement.